Elkhorn (Grade 2)- $250.000 Purse
KEE- For Four Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Half on the Turf
April 20, 2019

It’s official, Maxmillion Farm has swept the three races that I covered this week, something that is a tough feat since it entails winning three quality graded races in one day. While it’s not the first time something like this has happened, this is even more special because his biggest win of the day was not even one of the three I wrote up. Fortunately, I was able to get behind him at the start, picking two of his three winners, including Barton Rovers here in the Elkhorn. For this race, Maxmillion had to be happy to see the soft turf condition, since the last time Barton Rovers ran on soft turf, he destroyed his McKnight Handicap competition, also a 12-furlong race, by five lengths. This would be tougher, as the reigning champion of the race, Bayou Quartier, did all he could to repeat. In the end, Maxmillion Farm and jockey F Pennington win the Elkhorn for the first time in their careers. The time was of the victory was 2:32.00. Let’s take a look!

(½ Mile- :49.85)- As we start this twelve furlong race, Oh Awesome One is the quickest of the gate, running for TwinTowersRacing. He has a couple go with him early on, but only Sweet Son, for Oval Express Farms stays with him while moving around the first turn and heading down the frontstretch for the first time. Lets Do It Big Boy, out of RNP Stables, was a quick starter as well but would back off the pace by two lengths. After another length and a half, we had Estero Farms’ Happy Model, then a gap of two more to the rest of the field running close together. Barton Rovers, our eventual winner from Maxmillion Farm was in the middle of three wide here, seven lengths off. Bayou Quartier, the 2018 Elkhorn winner for Invicta Group Llc was on his inside, and longshot Aruba on the outside for D J C Racing Stables. Taniwha trailed for Aml Racing.

(3/4 Mile- 1:14.91)- Not surprisingly, we don’t see much change in the pecking order of the field during this portion of the race. Oh Awesome One and Sweet Son as still side by side with the similar gap to third place Lets Do It Big Boy. Gaps to the rest of the field remain the same as well at six furlongs, but the action does pick up as we near the end of the backstretch. Now we see Lets Do It Big Boy make a definitive three wide move on the front runners. Oh Awesome One starts to get a little leg weary as well approaching the final turn, leaving Sweet Son to now pull away by a length. Happy Model starts to narrow his gap, and further back we see Barton Rovers cut in the lead a little more definitively then the others he was racing with.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- You can stick a fork in Oh Awesome One now, and as they rounded the turn, Sweet Son began backing out, though hung on for a little while. Lets Do It Big Boy assumed the lead with Happy Model making a three wide move to join him at the front end. However, in the turn, there was no one better the Barton Rovers, who make it look easy as he cut into the lead. It was impressive how quickly he did this, not necessarily when considering the gap to the initial frontrunners, but to the likes of Happy Model, who was also running well at this point. Barton Rovers was now four wide, and already heads apart from taking over the race lead. Bayou Quartier had the rail while rounding the turn, and this lane remained opened for him as he too made up a lot of ground but had to still gain a length on Barton Rovers. The rest of the field was cooked like a holiday dinner.

(Finish- 2:32.00)- Barton Rovers completed the pass of Lets Do It Big Boy and Happy Model, and took over the lead with a furlong to go, but his race was not over yet. Bayou Quartier was coming on through from the rail and wanted to win this race again. He gained on Bayou Quartier, but the winner held his own, and the wire came up just in time to win in a photo over Bayou Quartier. Happy Model gets third, and Lets Do It Big Boy is fourth. There was a gap of seven lengths to the rest of the field, with Aruba beating Taniwha and Sweet Son. Happy to report that Oh Awesome One did eventually finish, as well.

About The Winner- Barton Rovers, trained by Maxmillion Farm and ridden to victory by F Pennington, is a four year old gelding by Forever Steel, and is out of American Heroine. He was bred in California by Mb Stables as a third quarter two year old and acquired by Barton Rovers via Onlineracingclub through a $20.000 private sale in May 2018. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his fifth in 12 starts, and his career earnings are now $422.550.

Track: Soft
Time: :49⁴  1:14⁴  2:06¹  2:32

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 4 – 1 Paid 25.20
$1 Trifecta: 4 – 1 – 6 Paid 89.50

Scratched: Steel Home

Winner picked by NS

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES