Try Your Luck much the best in Dueling Grounds Oaks
FRANKLIN, Ky. – Try Your Luck put away the opposition after turning into the long Kentucky Downs stretch and went on to a 7 1/2-length romp Sunday in the $188,720 Dueling Grounds Oaks, giving trainer Mike Maker and Florent Geroux yet another big victory at this turf-only track.
Always prominent, Try Your Luck overtook longshot Celestial Insight and was never threatened thereafter, finishing the 1 5/16-mile distance in 2:11.60 over a firm course. Try Your Luck, a daughter of Lookin At Lucky, returned $8.40 as second choice in a field of 12 3-year-old fillies. Taralena, the 2-1 favorite, was second, with Leafy Shade third and Celestial Insight holding on for fourth.
“She’d been hard-luck going back to a couple races in the spring and then the DQ in her last,” said Maker, referring to a disqualification from first in the Aug. 13 Pucker Up Stakes in her previous start at Arlington Park. “She proved herself today.”
On Saturday, Maker teamed with Geroux in winning the richest race of the meet, the Kentucky Turf Cup, with Da Big Hoss.
Maker said he hopes Try Your Luck will be invited to run in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 15 at Keeneland for her next race.
Try Your Luck, owned by Out Of This World Racing LLC, has won 3 of 10 starts, with this marking her first stakes score. She earned $114,000, more than doubling her bankroll to $225,114.
The $2 exacta (6-5) paid $29.20, the $1 trifecta (6-5-7) returned $194, and the 10-cent superfecta (6-5-7-12) was worth $270.25.
Earlier Sunday, Daddy’s Boo ($5.20) and Cammack ($4.60) won starter-allowances designed as preps for the 18th Claiming Crown series at Gulfstream Park. Each mile-and-70-yard race was worth $75,000.
Both winners receive a free nomination to the Dec. 3 Claiming Crown in their respective races, the Tiara and Emerald, along with a travel stipend provided by Kentucky Downs.
For Cammack, a Team Block homebred, it was his sixth straight victory in a streak dating to April 8 at Tampa Bay Downs.