Wicked Halo takes step up with Twin Bridges triumph
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Heavy favorite Wicked Halo had to work a bit harder than it looked on paper, but proved much the best, as expected, at the wire, winning the $125,000 Twin Bridges Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths on Sunday at Ellis Park.
Wicked Halo ($2.42), a Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred trained by Steve Asmussen, was getting class relief after facing the best of her division, finishing second to Matareya in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff in May with Eclipse Award champion Goodnight Olive in third, and finishing second by a neck to Goodnight Olive in the Grade 2 Bed O'Roses last month.
The millionaire was thus sent away as a heavy favorite in the Twin Bridges, which scratched down to a field of five; she and Cristian Torres broke from an advantageous outside post.
Dealing Justice was away alertly, but Non Violence, tugging away on Reylu Guttierez, quickly moved up on the outside to challenge her, with Wicked Halo sitting in a comfortable third. Around the single turn, Gutierrez let Non Violence loose, and she got first run on Wicked Halo, kicking clear to lead by a length as she hit the half-mile pole in 45.95 seconds.
Meanwhile, Wicked Halo had drawn up to second, essentially under her own power. Torres set her down as the top two came wide into the stretch, and she had to work to wear down a game Non Violence. In the final sixteenth, she got her measure, and Torres went to a hand ride for the final strides. Wicked Halo finished the six furlongs in 1:10.36 on the fast track.
Non Violence, making her first start in stakes company, held well for second, a length clear of Last Leaf, who came up the clear inside path to finish third. Dealing Justice faded to fourth, with Tap Dance Fever rounding out the order of finish.
David Fiske, the racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said this week that the Twin Bridges was intended as Wicked Halo's prep toward a return to Grade 1 company, in the Ballerina Stakes in August at Saratoga. She successfully punched her ticket on Sunday with her seventh career stakes win.
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