Samalaman Island Takes The TEX A. P. Challenge

Samalaman Island made it look all too easy as he stormed past Kepler Cro Cor C to take the win in The Tex A. P. Challenge. Blazing past the entire field with a speed of 110, Samalaman Island broke the race record of 2:31 by 3/5 of a second. Kepler Cro Cor C, who looked certain to take home the win, put forth a valiant effort but in the end, it just wasn’t enough. He failed to take home the win for the second time this month here in Tennessee. Let’s take a look and see just what happened.

At the first call it was Nijinsky in the lead. Red Wind and Touch and Stop were both a quarter of length off the lead in second and third. Then it was Sitttinwaitinwishin, Kepler Cro Cor C, Supreme Blend, Humboldt Station, K’s Inkognito, Mango Missile, Higher Than A Kite, Hier Ab Vier, Longer Than Woods, No Nag Here and Samalaman Island trailed the field, 11 3/4 lengths off the lead.

By the second call, the field remained almost the same with the exception of Kepler Cro Cor C who began easing towards the front of the pack, passing Sittinwaitinwishin and taking over fourth and Samalaman Island dropped even further back to 17 1/4 lengths off the lead. No Nag here dropped even further back to last by 18 1/4 lengths.

At the third call, it was Kepler Cro Cor C who had taken over the lead by 3 lengths and was pulling away from the field. Little did he know that Samalaman Island was hunting down and overtaking the field one by one. He was still 10 1/2 lengths off the lead but was closing the gap fast to finally overtake and pass Kepler Cro Cor C and be the first under the finish wire a good 4 lengths ahead of Kepler Cro Cor C. 4 3/4 lengths behind Kepler Cro Cor C, Humboldt Station finished the race in 3rd.

So yet, once again, I was wrong about the outcome. I predicted Kepler Cro Cor C x Samalaman Island x Touch and Stop. I wasn’t too far off with Kepler Cro Cor C and Samalaman Island but Touch and Stop finished the race in 9th, 19 lengths back, but I must say that it was quite a race and for once, I was happy to be proven wrong.