Undefeated Caps and Carnage may head to stakes at new track
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Caps and Carnage, bought for a mere $2,500 as a yearling in Arizona, extended his unbeaten streak to five races with a win by 20 3/4 lengths in the $50,000 Gold Rush Futurity at Arapahoe Park in Colorado on Sunday.
The win may lead to a start in a $100,000 race for 2-year-olds at Bally’s Cheyenne Park, a new racetrack scheduled to open in Wyoming on Oct. 3.
The track has planned a 16-day meeting through Nov. 1. The $100,000 race will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs, according to director of racing Shannon Rushton. Cheyenne Park has yet to publish its stakes schedule or condition book.
A California-bred by Dads Caps, Caps and Carnage, owned by Candice Evans and trained by Dru Hall, won the Gold Rush Futurity in his customary style, leading throughout under jockey Luis Valenzuela.
Caps and Carnage led by eight lengths with a furlong remaining and beat six rivals as the 3-5 favorite, finishing six furlongs in 1:11.34. Caps and Carnage earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 74.
“We keep knocking on wood,” Hall said. “We’re lucky.”
Hall is currently based at Sweetwater Downs in Rock Springs, Wyo. Caps and Carnage was shipped there on Monday. The race at Cheyenne Park, east of Cheyenne, may be Caps and Carnage’s last start of the year.
“I’ll lay up here a little bit and let him be a horse and see what they do” in Cheyenne, Hall said. “The horse is going to be turned out sometime. If they have a $100,000 race, I have to go.”
Caps and Carnage won a futurity trial in his debut at Turf Paradise in April and has since won four consecutive stakes – the $46,850 Turf Paradise Open Spring Futurity at five furlongs by 1 1/2 lengths on May 2, the $40,000 Sue Wallis Memorial Futurity at five furlongs at Wyoming Downs on June 28, and the $49,500 King County Express Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Emerald Downs in Washington state on July 19.
Caps and Carnage has won five starts by a combined 57 1/2 lengths.
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