White Spar wins opening-day Kruytbosch

White Spar rallied smartly to capture the $50,000 Luke Kruytbosch Stakes Friday, opening day of Turf Paradise's 53rd season.

Owned by Dennis Weir and trained by Kevin Lewis, White Spar, the 6-5 favorite, rallied under Daniel Vergara to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 1.09.04. He paid $4.40 and the winner's share of $30,000 pushes his earnings to $155,447 from five wins in nine starts.

Atta Boy Roy was second and Red Sky Dubai third in the six-furlong event for 3-year-olds. Formerly called the Saguaro Stakes, the Kruytbosch was renamed in honor of Kruytbosch, the track announcer at Turf Paradise since 1993 who passed away in July at 47. New track announcer, Frank Mirahmadi, well known for his impersonations of other track announcers, called the race using the late announcer's style.