Like a Blaze of Gold
One of the best closers on turf proved it again as Gold Inferno flew past the others like a ball of fire to take the Grade III Harry Carey Memorial Stakes. Prior runnings of this event on firm turf have all been won by horses on the lead or within just a length of the early leaders, but the four year old colt from the Correction stable won convincingly after falling to last in the early fractions of the race.
Ranked 40th coming into the race, Gold Inferno may have benefited from the absence of higher rated runners, many of whom are pointed to run in next week’s Breeders Bowl Mile. With the graded win, his ranking improves to 28th among older turf classic runners.
This was the second win of this race for jockey R Logan, who was aboard Dom Tendencies, who set the stakes record in 2004. Today’s race was one and two fifths second slower than that race.
With several entered who appeared to need the lead to run well, it was three year old To Die For who surged ahead to a two length lead for much of the race. But that pace was surely fatal for To Die For, as he faded in the lane to finish fourth.
With a closing kick that would have looked impressive had it not been overshadowed by the winner, Merry Mex, out of the GradeOne stable, edged out Yowza from the 8BallFarms stable in a photo for the place.