Banana Empire Tops Salt Lake Feature
The RAPID RUCKUS Challenge
Stakes
One mile
Fast Dirt
$50,000
All horses, 2 years old
PP Horse Owner Jockey Odds
1 RED FORT topicount4 S Weber 5/1
2 SALT BLUFF wtas02 C Morten 4/1
3 SALLY SPEEDBAG dapsal I Aldridge 4/1
4 BIG TIME STAR canismajor O Osbourne 5/2
5 OJAI GREEN(GB) ojai4keith M Dunn 13/1
6 BANANA EMPIRE cr M Fletcher 9/5
A field of six classy youngsters will greet starter Donny Osmond in this week’s Salt Lake Race Course feature. The Rapid Ruckus is fashioned at a mile over the Brigham Young main course and carries a purse of $50,000.00. Here are the starters from the rail outward.
Breaking from the pole is the lightly raced Rahy chestnut, Red Fort. Laura’s colt looks very much like a horse who will enjoy the added distance. After breaking his maiden over seven furlongs on the turf, he tried the dirt at the same distance and was gobbling up ground rapidly in the late stages while settling for show honors in a British Columbia allowance test. Needs only slight improvement to threaten in here.
Wtas02 sends out Salt Bluff for this test. The appropriately named Salt Lake colt is graded placed by virtue of a strong third place finish in The Buckeye Juvenile last time out. Salt Bluff was been good from day one and now that he’s proven he can handle two turns, he is a definite threat in here. Will enjoy the drop to ungraded company and gets the services of veteran Chris Morten in the irons.
There are two fillies in the race but Sally Speedbag isn’t one of them. The colt named Sally shows no ill effects from his androgynous moniker. The busy gray has one win, four seconds and a third to show for his ten starts. He was a decent fourth in his first stakes attempt earning him a trip to Salt Lake. Should be prominent early and could snag a check for owner/trainer/breeder Dapsal.
Second choice at 5-2 is the Aldebaran filly Big Time Star. The versatile daughter of Chicago F(ire) has won on both surfaces and is a stakes winner at this distance on dirt. She annexed Missouri’s Adana Stakes two back and followed that tally with a sharp fourth place finish behind top colt Magical Merlin in the Grade II North Fork Stakes at Hollywood. Leading rider Ozzie Osbourne gets the leg up from trainer Canismajor.
Ojai4keith sends out his homebred Ojai Green(gb). The daughter of Almutawakel(gb) and the Thunder Gulch mare Green Thunder has managed a pair of second place finishes in minor four horse stakes. She has some talent but needs to improve light years to challenge this group. Maybe next time.
Favored Banana Empire breaks from the outside gate. The handsome Empire Maker chestnut hails from a black type family. He’s a half to stakes winner Golden Banana from the stakes winning Storm Cat mare, Banana Brio. Banana Empire won a 7.5 furlong ungraded stake three back. Then came a futile ninth place finish behind Eclipse favorite Half A World Away in The Camel and a decent fourth chasing K’s Rumor Has It in the Grade II End of the Line Futurity. A return to listed company may be just what the doctor ordered.
Come out early as the first 5,000 paid admissions will receive a beautiful snow globe depicting Christmas in Temple Square.