Speed is an amazing thing. Get a bunch of fantastic runners with fabulous speed, line them up and it is pretty difficult to break the line. The field for the 2020 BC Sprint all pretty much seemed to have the same thing on their mind….go very fast! When that gate opened on the KEE backstretch all but three of the field of 14 tore down the backstretch toward the far turn as though this were a Midwest quarter horse race. Only Mb Stables’ John Deere, Oquinn Farm’ Tallmadge Star and Angelos Stable’ Angelsinheaven dropped back behind the wall of horse that stretched eleven wide.

Like a massive, colourful fan, they headed to the far turn with Mb Stables’ Sail Away on the extreme outside leading the way and losing a massive amount of ground, with Nolespan Racing’s Yocomoblazed just alongside losing almost as much. Alongside him was Fractious’ Global Strike, a head back and a head in front of SamIam’s Gothic Heart. Then pretty much the rest of the field by the number a head and nose with the three stragglers drifting toward the rail, the only ones with a chance to save ground, but with a wall of horses in front of them

As they swung around the turn, little changed, other than Yocomoblazed got his head in front of Sail Away while they were forced to remain ten and eleven lengths away from the rail while John Deere and Tallmadge Star started looking for any sign of a hole. As they began to enter the stretch, it became obvious to Franco aboard John Deere that, if a hole opened near the rail, there wasn’t going to be enough room for two, and his mount was pulling at the bit right by god now, so he swung him overland, and what an overland trip that would be with that entire field still fanned out and drifting a little from the inertia of the turn.

Into the stretch and John Deere had actually reached the outside of the field, Tallmadge Star was still next to last and praying for an opening, Sail Away had regained the lead by nearly a half length and Smokey Stover’s Carnoustie was holding second. Through the final furlong, things happened fast and surprisingly as a hole finally opened at the rail and Tallmadge Star aimed for it, La Canada Racehorses’ Vanderbiltt and Mb Stables’ Peculiar Sensation charged into contention and John Deere exploded like a rocket in what little lane he had found.

In the final strides John Deere got up to score the widest victory I’ve ever seen with Tallmadge Star somehow taking second on the rail finding a hole through an eleven-horse wall, while Peculiar Sensation was the survivor of the wall for third. John Deere was so wide at the wire in the viewer that he was nowhere to be seen. I mean, I could have told you he finished atop the guard rail at the fans and you’d have no choice but to believe me.

Track: Fast
Time: :22   :44⁴  :56⁴  1:09

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 12 – 7 Paid 48.50
$1 Trifecta: 12 – 7 – 2 Paid 1,538.40

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES