Hard Mon(GER)<\/b> shattered both the race record, as well as his own personal best speed to romp to a two and a half length victory in this week\u2019s Sharp Pinky Challenge. His 111.025 speed ranks 16th<\/sup> all time for this distance on turf. This was the first stakes win for the four year old colt out of Monsun(GER), and his seventh win overall in his 21 starts. He has now won three of his last four starts. While taking his career earnings to the $151198 mark, he also moved onto the board in the competitive Older Long Turf Division, moving into rank 242 with the win. Handicappers were smiling this week, finally seeing some passable exotic payouts. The winner paid $12.80 $6.00 $5.30 across the board. The exotics were even more appetizing, with the exacta paying $75.90 and a decent $305.50 payout in the trifecta.<\/p>\n Matisyahu(KY)<\/b> broke fast from the gate, with Nomore Temple(KY)<\/b> matching him stride for stride early. A scant quarter length separated the two at first call, with nearly two lengths on the rest of the field. Nomore Temple(KY) couldn\u2019t hold the blazing early pace, however, and as they headed toward the half post, Matisyahu(KY) opened a clear lead. At the halfway mark, he had opened a length and half lead, and just over four on the next closest runners, who were already showing signs of fading. He kept up the pressure, and with the majority of the field tiring rapidly, suddenly it looked like a two horse race, with Hard Mon(GER) trying to close the gap. Hard Mon(GER) was closing hard, but Matisyahu(KY) still owned a four and a half length advantage as they crossed the three quarters post and headed for home. Hard Mon(GER) seemed to find another gear down the stretch, though, and slipped by the hard running leader, tacking on another two and a half lengths for good measure to land himself in the winner\u2019s circle. Matisyahu(KY) finished second. Race favorite Gormenghast(IRE) made a determined effort late, picking up several lengths down the stretch, but the gap was just too big, and he settled for third, four lengths out at the wire.<\/p>\n <\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anther race record shattered<\/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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184","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=7184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}