Runaway Ghost impresses in winning Riley Allison

Runaway Ghost won the second stakes race of his young career on Sunday, rolling to a 7 3/4-length victory over Beautiful Game in the $100,000 Riley Allison for 3-year-olds at Sunland Park. The start was Runaway Ghost’s first since finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos CashCall Futurity and his first in New Mexico.

The Riley Allison is one of two local preps for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby. The next race in the series is the Mine That Bird Derby.

Runaway Ghost ($4.40) was sent to the region to target the 3-year-old series at Sunland, said trainer Todd Fincher, who was saddling the horse for the first time Sunday. Runaway Ghost was always prominent in the Riley Allison, running the opening quarter in 23.96 seconds, letting his rivals take the lead through a half-mile in 47.93 and six furlongs in 1:12.08, then moving to the fore again and covering the mile on a fast track in 1:36.02.

Earlier in his career, Runaway Ghost won the Golden Nugget Futurity at Golden Gate while under the care of trainer Mike Machowsky. Tracy Hebert rode Runaway Ghost on Sunday for the horse’s breeder and owner, Joe Peacock.

Fincher removed blinkers with the hope of getting Runaway Ghost to relax a little more, one start after the horse set a quick pace in the Los Alamitos Futurity. That race was Runaway Ghost’s first at two turns, and he came into it off a wire-to-wire win in the Golden Nugget.

Runaway Ghost is by Ghostzapper and out of the mare Rose’s Desert, a seven-time stakes winner who earned $626,035. Rose’s Desert raced for Peacock and was trained by Fincher. Runaway Ghost has now won three of five starts and $143,510.

The card also featured the $65,000 El Paso Times, a race for 3-year-old fillies designed to produce starters for the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks.

Blamed ($19.80) picked up the first stakes win of her career, leading throughout for a 4 1/2-length victory over Laudation. The winner set fractions of 21.69 seconds for the opening quarter and 43.98 for the half-mile before winning the 6 1/2-furlong race in 1:15.42.

Ken Tohill was aboard for Cleber Massey and trainer Joel Marr.

Blamed, a daughter of Blame bred in Maryland by Sagamore Farm, has now won three of four starts and $72,260.