Turfway Park: We Miss Artie surges to win three-way Spiral photo

FLORENCE, Ky. – Ken Ramsey wasn’t on hand to see We Miss Artie take a very narrow victory Saturday in the 43rd running of the Grade 3, $518,950 Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park. But you could almost hear him cackling from Florida.

Picking up where they left off last year, Ramsey and his wife, Sarah, once again were the winners of a major stakes in Kentucky when We Miss Artie, ridden by John Velazquez, was up in the final stride to nip Harry’s Holiday in the 43rd running of the annual Turfway showcase. Coastline was just another head back in a thrilling three-horse photo.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

We Miss Artie, the second choice in a field of 12 3-year-olds, returned $9.20 after finishing the 1 1/8-mile distance in 1:52.26 over Polytrack. Based all winter in Florida with trainer Todd Pletcher, the colt earned 50 points toward eligibility for the May 3 Kentucky Derby and surely will run if he makes the cut, Ramsey said earlier in the week.

Turning for home, Harry’s Holiday and Coastline both ranged up to overtake the lone remaining pacesetter, Solitary Ranger, while We Miss Artie loomed a danger to their outside with a furlong to run. Just yards from the wire, it appeared Harry’s Holiday, a 15-1 shot under Rosie Napravnik, had finally gotten the best of Coastline and had the race won, but a final surge by We Miss Artie nailed him by about two inches.

“I found a nice spot down the backside,” said Velazquez. “At the sixteenth pole we drifted out a little so he didn’t have to work so hard. He just kept coming and we were fortunate to get up at the wire.”

The Ramseys won their third Eclipse Award in 2013 for outstanding owner during a spectacular year when they won titles at Saratoga, Gulfstream, and all the major Kentucky meets. Even though We Miss Artie has not run well in two tries over dirt, Ken Ramsey, 78, makes no apologies about getting a horse into the Derby however he can.

“Winning the Derby is priority number one in this game for me,” he said last week. On a post-race conference call following the Spiral, he gleefully sang “My Old Kentucky Home” for a handful of reporters.

We Miss Artie, an Ontario-bred by Artie Schiller, now has two graded stakes wins on Polytrack, having won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity last fall at Keeneland. In his three subsequent starts he was seventh on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile; second in an ungraded turf stakes at Gulfstream Park; and a distant eighth in the Fountain of Youth on the Gulfstream dirt.

The defeat was particularly brutal for the ownership group of Harry’s Holiday. One of them, Terry Raymond, said afterward they likely would make the colt eligible for the Triple Crown for a $6,000 late fee by the Saturday night deadline. The colt earned 20 Derby points with his finish.

Behind the top three finishers, the most disappointing performance was turned in by Tamarando, the 2-1 favorite. The California-bred colt never entered contention when finishing eighth under Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze.

The complete order after the top three was Asserting Bear, Big Bazinga, All Tied Up, Arctic Slope, Tamarando, Solitary Ranger, Poker Player, Almost Famous, and Smart Cover.

The Spiral win was the second for Ramsey, who won in 2010 with Dean’s Kitten; the second for Velazquez (Went the Day Well, 2012); and the third for Pletcher (Balto Star, 2001, and Flower Alley, 2005).

The $2 exacta (11-10) paid $130.20, the $1 trifecta (11-10-5) returned $621.80, and the 10-cent superfecta (11-10-5-2) was worth $595.25.