Rainbow Heir takes inaugural Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Rainbow Heir had suffered some brutal beats over the last year or his record might have been even better than the 12 wins from 29 starts he brought into Saturday’s inaugural running of the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship.

Saturday, Rainbow Heir made up for some of those losses by running down stablemate Summation Time in deep stretch en route to a three-quarter length victory in the $125,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint. Dubini, a 59-1 shot, rallied outside to get second by a half-length over a rail-skimming Conquest Panthera. It was a neck back to Summation Time in fourth.

The win was the eighth stakes victory for Rainbow Heir, a 7-year-old son of Wildcat Heir owned by Ebby Novak’s New Farm. Rainbow Heir will stand at Ocala Stud in Florida in 2018, though trainer Jason Servis said the horse could possibly run once more before then. Rainbow Heir pushed his career earnings to $731,545. He could have earned more if not for narrow losses in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governors Cup or the $125,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Stakes earlier this year.

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“He’s a really nice horse,” Servis said, adding that Summation Time “ran hard and probably doesn’t want to run that way.”

Summation Time, under Manny Franco, jumped out of the gate running and set fractions of 21.80 seconds for the quarter and 44.11 for the opening half-mile. Rainbow Heir, under Irad Ortiz Jr., was fifth, but only 3 1/2 lengths off the early pace.

In the stretch, Ortiz had moved Rainbow Heir into third and he had to come out a path as Bucchero, who was chasing Summation Time, moved out a path. Ortiz straightened Rainbow Heir out quickly and he was able to run by Summation Time in deep stretch to get the victory.

“He break sharp, he put me right there, just sat comfortable and when I asked him he took off,” said Ortiz, who earlier on the card won the Forever Together aboard Penjade.

Rainbow Heir covered the six furlongs over the outer turf course in 1:08.60 and returned $15.60 to win.

“You could see on the turf Irad was loaded,” said Servis, who watched the race on television from south Florida.

The win capped a strong 24 hours for Servis, who also won Friday’s Grade 3 Comely Stakes here with Actress.