Ravalo sprints to second straight stakes win

The 3-year-old gelding Ravalo ($6.60), coming off a career-best performance winning the Sophomore Sprint Championship a month earlier, had an equally easy time stepping up to defeat older sprinters in Saturday night's $75,000 Christmas Stakes at Mountaineer Racetrack.

Based at Laurel Park with trainer Donald Barr, Ravalo scored a wire-to-wire 3.5-length victory by covering six furlongs on a fast track in 1:11.19 under jockey Dana Whitney. Midwest shipper Coach Jimi Lee, the co-favorite at 2-1, took second by a head over Cowboy Hardware in a field reduced to five by five scratches.