Super Turkey Special lives up to its billing

In a race featuring a relatively slow pace, Wake The Warden(KY) took control early, and went gate to wire to win this week’s Super Turkey Special. This was the second career win for the two year old daughter of freshman sire Latent Heat, and her first in stakes competition. The win takes her career earnings to the $73658 mark in her eight starts. The stakes win inched her closer to the top 100 juvenile filly turf sprinters, leaving her at a rank of 101 after the race. Her 69.8 speed figure won’t break any records, but it was enough to get the job done here. There was no joy at the betting windows here for the second week running, with the winner paying $4.20 $2.10 $2.10 across the board. The exotics suffered even worse this week, with a paltry $3.60 payout in the exacta and an even more disappointing $7.00 in the trifecta.

It was touted as a two horse race, and that was exactly what it proved to be, with Wake The Warden(KY) breaking fast from the gate, with race favorite Grendel’s Mother(AUS) sitting just off her tail. Wake The Warden(KY) had control of the pace though, slowly but methodically widening the gap. A one length lead at the first call had turned into one and three quarters at the half. Grendel’s Mother(AUS) wasn’t going to let her skate away with it though, and Wake The Warden(KY) only managed to tack on another quarter as they crossed the third call and headed into the stretch. Grendel’s Mother(AUS) kept pressing stride for stride, even finding a little more down the stretch to try to catch the leader, but was only able to recoup a quarter length late, watching Wake The Warden(KY) cross the wire first with a length and a quarter victory. Horse Pool entry A Touch Of French(IND) managed third place honors, a distant seventeen lengths out at the wire.