Ollie’s Here

By winning the Grade 3 Panhandle Derby, Ollie’s Gone picked up his second graded win and moved into the top ten rankings in the three year old classic turf division.  It was the sixth win in only 11 starts for the brown son of Gone West.

Competition was only thinned a little by the Breeders Bowl races, and the well timed move to beat a full field of fourteen was impressive enough that trainer Beamnreasn has every reason to be optimistic about this colt’s future.  He just gets better every race.

Ollie’s Gone was the fourth choice among the Florida bettors and paid $18.70, $9.40, and $7.30.  He covered the mile and an eighth in 1:48², a full second and a fifth slower than the stakes record set by Cougar Bite in 2002.

For the first half it looked as though Okemo Prospector, who seemed relaxed on an easy lead, might just run off with it, but as he seems to every other race, he faded to finish out of the money as a host of horses charged together past him in the stretch.

Moving fastest at the end, Pedro’s Rainbow and Candlepower finished within a length of the winner to complete a trifecta that paid over two thousand dollars.

Favorite Very One was prominent early, but was used up.