DIGGING THE GRAVE BURIES EQUINICS FIELD

DIGGING THE GRAVE BURIES EQUINICS FIELD

*SPARKLING EFFORT BRINGS HOME THE GOLD*

By: Kingab

(ITALY) Breaking smoothly from his number one post-position, Zewango2 Stable’s Digging The Grave bested nineteen rivals over six-furlongs to earn a gold medal and Equinics glory for himself and the DelPenn residency. The gorgeous, dark, gun-metal grey was the first to show at the break, then powered away in front-running style to best the overwhelmed star-studded field. He was so dominating that he had opened up a four-length lead by the time the field came to the top of the stretch, and without ever feeling the sting of the whip, coasted home by almost two lengths. In his wake was the Eclipse Award winning sprint champion, Proudtruth Stable’s General’s Chariot, who finished a game and closing second, but neither he, nor anyone else, was ever a serious threat to the flying grey. Tete Not Galileo(IRE) of the Racelord Stable, closed strongly in the center of the track to finish third.

Heavy overnight rains, which were never forecast, left the turf in a soft, yielding condition that had all of the trainers and fans wondering how the field would handle it. Some were a known commodity over it, while some, like General’s Chariot, were making their first trip over anything but a firm course. Digging The Grave had already started once over an off turf course, and probably ran the worst race of his career. His trainer was anything but confident going into the race. “I was heart broken when I woke up this morning and saw the rain,” he said, “but what can you do? You can’t come this far for a once in a lifetime opportunity like this and scratch your horse. You just have to go on and hope he handles it. I was really shocked that he was able to produce a performance like that under these conditions.” A surprisingly upbeat Snowchief was anything but down hearted over her champion’s performance. “He didn’t appear to handle it very well the first part of the race,” she said, “but he took a pretty good hold of it once he hit the stretch and leveled out. I wouldn’t hesitate to run him again on a soft course. He just got outrun today by a top horse who ran a fantastic race. We will no doubt meet again down the road.”

Despite the boggy conditions, the victory was completed in a sprightly 1:09 flat, and was the twelfth win in twenty lifetime starts for the big grey, leaving him a few dollars short of the $2 million mark. It was his sixth graded stakes win including a pair of grade-ones.