Claiming

Chart notes

LONELY RIDE settled at the rear of the field through the first half-mile, was put into a hard ride after passing that marker, advanced on the rail through the far turn, tipped out to the four path for the stretch run, and finished best to take down the top prize. INBOUND settled well behind the pace through the early stages, was put into a stiff drive from the three-furlong pole and responded with a steady, grinding rally to gain the second spot. MASAKADO broke well, then was pushed to vie for the early lead, dueled with STRIKING SPARKS two wide from the outside but through reasonable early fractions, pulled a few lengths clear of the rest down the backstretch, had something left turning for home, and continued to battle through the stretch until overtaken by the winner. STRIKING SPARKS was coaxed from the break to get forward position, secured the rail, then was taken on by MASAKADO to the outside and dueled with that rival to the stretch, finished up well before weakening a bit in the final furlong. FUNKENSTEIN was the trailer to the far turn, then ran on some in the stretch to improve. H C HOLIDAY tracked in third position a few lengths behind the dueling pair, came under a ride near the five-sixteenths marker but did not respond. GRANTED SUCCESS got caught four-wide into the first turn, continued wide down the backstretch racing mid-pack tracking the leaders, tried to launch a bid on the fa turn but was kept wide, came six-wide into the stretch and was unable to threaten. UNINVITED GUEST was sent hard after the break, settled inside with the forward group tracking the pace, then started to retreat midway through the far turn and had nothing left for the stretch run. FIRST SHOT FIRED settled with the trio at the back, made a mild bid late on the far turn but quickly stalled out and was outfinished in the final furlong.