Turfway: Rushaway can be breakthrough event

FLORENCE, Ky. – It would not be altogether surprising, nor unprecedented, for a maiden to win the $75,000 Rushaway Stakes. It happened eight years ago when a homebred named Brass Hat notched his first victory in the 1 1/16-mile race on the way to becoming a millionaire.

Mark Casse will send out the maiden Dynamical as one of the main contenders among the eight 3-year-olds entered to run Saturday at Turfway Park in the Rushaway, one of three undercard stakes on the 12-race Vinery Spiral program.

“He’s run about as good as a maiden can run and still be a maiden,” said Casse. Dynamical was narrowly beaten in a Gulfstream Park maiden route before finishing a creditable third in the Battaglia Memorial at Turfway earlier this month. Rajiv Maragh will have the mount from post 4.

The probable favorite in the 28th Rushaway is Flashy Dresser, whose unveiling at Gulfstream nearly three weeks ago proved quite a show. The colt sped away to win the six-furlong race by nearly seven lengths, earning owner-trainer Fred Seitz a lot of congratulatory calls, not to mention a number of inquiries into buying the colt.

Seitz ultimately decided to keep the colt and settled on the Rushaway as a means to show how good he might be.

“We’re going longer, stepping up in class, and we’re coming back fairly quick,” said Seitz. “This should tell us a lot about the colt.”

Flashy Dresser will break from post 8 with Luis Contreras staying aboard.

Casse also will have Bluedacious (post 5, Junior Alvarado) starting alongside Dynamical in the Rushaway. The gray WinStar Farm homebred developed a decent kick last fall on the Woodbine Polytrack before going through his maiden condition in his fifth start.

“He’s been training extremely well at Palm Meadows, and he runs well on the Polytrack,” noted Casse.

Gold Megillah (post 6), with John Velazquez riding for West Point Thoroughbreds and trainer Graham Motion, is another viable consideration, exiting back-to-back first-level turf allowances at Gulfstream.

The Rushaway goes as the eighth race.

(dot) With a colt named Lockout, Casse has another maiden – and quite possibly the horse to beat – in the first stakes of the day, the $50,000 Hansel (race 7).

Lockout ran second in all three of his races at 2, but the last two were in the Swynford and the Grade 3 Grey Stakes over the Woodbine Poly. That excellent form, along with his recent workout pattern over the synthetic surface at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales center in central Florida, could be enough to make him favored over his nine opponents in the six-furlong Hansel. Maragh has the call from post 5.

Other 3-year-olds rating long looks in this 19th running of the Hansel include Magical Season (post 3, Rosie Napravnik), an in-money finisher in two stakes at Turfway this winter; She’s Ready Made (post 7, John Velazquez), the lone filly in the field and an easy maiden winner over the Aqueduct inner track last month; and Hogy (post 10, Javier Castellano), who has been rounding into form in the local allowance ranks.