Favourites go down to emerging INVALID

It was a less than capacity crowd at the Missouri track to witness the running of the feature event of the week, the Paint Nana Memorial Stakes, after the state was greeted with overcast skies and drizzly rain in the morning.  The stewards rated the track good, and it was to be the first time that the morning line favourites, NUREY’S WOOD, PART EXCHANGE and VALIANT would face an off-track, but the punters had confidence these three would fight out the finish.

Those who braved the weather were not rewarded with a favourable result in the main race however, with lightly raced and highly promising outsider, POKE THE INVALID stealing the limelight, paying a dividend of $32.70 for the win.

The 4yo filly, lined up for just her fourth career start, after having demolished her previous two opposition fields before heading to the paddock to freshen up for her second campaign.  Trainer, olympic, was not surprised by the result, and has bigger and better races in mind for his young up and comer.  POKE THE INVALID (15/1) revelled in the damp conditions to sit at the leaders neck for the first half a mile, before challenging at the 5-furlong marker and never looking back to go on to score a 3 ¼ length win. 

PART EXCHANGE (3/1) gave each way betters some consolation, with an encouraging second, improving gradually throughout the second half of the race, after sitting in third for most of the way.  The tempo of the race allowed her to fall into a handy position and save enough energy for a last run at them in the stretch, but the winner had stolen an unbeatable lead at that stage, and this Dixieland Band filly was not disgraced in her efforts, hitting the board with an SP#102.

Early leader GOLDEN TALE (5/1), battled gamely to finish third, holding off the fast finishing THINKINGMYWAYPASS (7/1) who came from 9 lengths off the lead.  Under pressure from POKE THE INVALID for the first half of the race, GOLDEN TALE struggled to go with the winner when she went for home before the stretch, but showed great fighting spirit to finish with the show, and top triple figure SPs for the second start running.  THINKINGMYWAYPASS took her career prize money to more than $100k with a fast closing fourth, but had given the leaders too much of a start to ever look a winning chance. 

Highly favoured NUREY’S WORLD (2/1) and VALIANT (7/2) did not look at home on the off-track at any stage, and only battled from mid-field from the early stages.  NUREY’S WORLD is definitely worth another chance next up if she can find a fast track, while VALIANT is capable of much better than what she did this week.

WARBAGER (10/1), the graded stakes winning filly by War Emblem, struggled throughout, and was no match for this field, and may be better placed back in allowance company until she can find some consistent form.

Outsider of the field, NOBODY’S BOIS (17/1), coming off a last start win on good going, was handy in the early stages, but began to weaken at the half way mark to finish at the rear.  This filly will be better for the experience, but is probably not up to stakes class just yet.