Three year olds will get a taste of distance in Virginia this week, as the run in the Crevis En La Burgs(IRE) Stakes. The race will run over eleven furlongs of firm turf, and it carries a $45000 purse. This is the second running of this annual stakes, which was won last year by Princeton Lights<\/B> in his first ever 100+ speed run, outdueling an now multiple graded winner New Storm<\/B>. This year\u2019s edition draws only four intrepid colts, split between first time stakes runners and stakes winning veterans. Oddsmakers chose a favorite here at 8\/5, and graduated the rest the the entries, though the longshot is at a short 5\/1 odds. This will be the longest run to date for most of these colts, and that should make for an interesting race.<\/P>
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PP 1) Manaito<\/B> Sired by Sadler\u2019s Wells, Trained by palmisland. Manaito will make his eleventh career start here, and it will be the eighth of his sophomore season. This will be his first try at stakes level, earned by virtue of back to back allowance wins, showing some of the best form of his career. In his ten prior starts, he has generated a record of 3-2-2-1-0, with a best speed of 94.8 earned two starts back on yielding turf. His last start was an A3L outing at ten furlongs on a tough Eastern Kentucky track, where he held on for dear life down the stretch to cling to a three quarter length victory over a nearly full field. This colt has spent the majority of his career on dirt, and faired quite well. He has really exploded in his last two starts on turf, though, and it looks like he may be staying here for a while. His previous long race was his last outing, at ten furlongs, and his jump in speed over the last two starts indicate he may be craving the distance. He\u2019s a fast starter, and two of three career victories have come in wire to wire fashion. He will have some competition for that early lead in this one, though, and isn\u2019t going to have a chance to open up the big cushion he likes. He proved in his last that he has the stamina to survive an early speed duel, and he comes off two career best runs as he has stretched out. Don\u2019t count him out here.<\/P>
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PP 2) Nighthawk Quest<\/B> Sired by Coronado\u2019s Quest, Trained by 4nighthawk. Nighthawk Quest comes into this race as the oddsmaker\u2019s choice in his eighteenth career run. After a very active two year old season, this will be the seventh start of his three year old season. He is a veteran stakes runner and he has three stakes wins to his credit, all this season. His last ten starts have netted him a record of 3-1-2-0-1 with a best speed of 98.7, earned three starts back at a mile on dirt. His last race was a Grade III outing in Texas at seven furlongs on dirt, where he finished a dismal thirteenth in a full field. He is primarily a dirt runner, and his two previous tries on turf have been nothing to write home about. He did win a short sprint on turf midway through his juvenile season though in a short field. Along with his lack of turf experience, this will also be his longest run to date by a furlong and a half. Thus far he seems to be at his best at about the mile range and hasn\u2019t shown the inclination to perform at longer distances. He\u2019s a mid pack closer, and his close has been somewhat off and on this year. He needs to be fairly close to the leaders to have success, and doesn\u2019t fare well if he finds himself out too deep. All in all he\u2019s a good horse with a promising future, but at this distance on turf, I\u2019ll have to take a pass on him here.<\/P>
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PP 3) Spanish Heart<\/B> Sired by Spanish Steps, Trained by noia. Spanish Heart makes his thirteenth career start here and the eighth of his three year old campaign. This will be his first try at stakes level, taking a big step up in class from the starter allowance ranks. He earned this vote of confidence from his trainer by winning four of his last five starts while taking advantage of his claim tag. Twelve prior starts have earned him a record of 4-4-1-1-1, with a best speed of 89.0 earned right here in Virginia, three starts back. His last outing was a 40K Starter Allowance on a very tough Vermont track, where he went wire to wire against a short field to win by over four lengths. He made the switch to turf after his fifth career race, and it immediately paid dividends in both speed and success. Though he has not been racing against the strongest of competion, he\u2019s never finished worse than third on turf. He has experience at distance running, and his career best run was at thirteen furlongs. He is the only entry in this field that has run beyond ten furlongs. He has gone gate to wire in his last two, though generally he runs a stalker\u2019s race, and has shown some ability from the head of the mid pack. He has a burner in front of him here, but he has the stamina to be able to stay reasonably close at distance. He may be overlooked here due to his background, but keep an eye on him here. He could very well be dueling for the lead as they turn for the stretch.<\/P>
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PP 4) Faliano(IRE)<\/B> Sired by Falbrav(IRE), Trained shorblue5. Faliano(IRE) is running in his tenth career start here, and his sixth as a three year old. He has one stakes victory to his credit, and a near miss at Grade III level. Nine career runs leave him in possession of a 5-2-0-0-0 record, with a best speed of 96.5, earned in his last outing. That race was an A4x outing at nine furlongs in Maryland, where he bested a short field by just over three lengths. He switched to turf after his first start, and his speed jumped from just under 60 to over 81, and he hasn\u2019t ever left the green again. He has also finished worst than second only one time in his next eight starts. The nine furlong run in his last start was his longest to date, but it was also a career best. He doesn\u2019t show any adversity to the distance, but an extra quarter mile is going to be a long way. He is a deep closer, and his close has been excellent, and very consistent. He has found himself regularly closing up gaps of ten to twelve lengths in much shorter races. With the added distance and early speed here, that gap could be closer to twenty lengths, and it is going to be a tough close to grab this one. Look for him to be driving hard in the second half, and if he is under fifteen lengths at the half, he could be looking at his seconds stakes win.<\/P>
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Eleven furlong challenge draws only four brave souls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}