Race :\u00a0Panhandle Park Derby<\/b>\u00a0– Grade III – $100,000
ID: 4183.0212
Track : Florida
Restrictions : All horses, 3 years old
Distance : Nine furlongs on the Turf
We were in for an exciting day of racing this past Saturday here in Florida with the several stakes races that were on the weekends\u2019 card. The twelfth race on the card was the Panhandle Park Derby (G3) over a mile and one eighth for three-year-olds. The crowd gathered there on the sunny winters day was in for a surprise when a 14\/1 shot took home the dirt route by a couple lengths to win the first graded stakes race of their career with a lifetime best speed figure of one hundred three.
The full field of fourteen horses made their way to the starting gate on Saturday full of energy and ready to take on the first race of the new year. Coyote Indian (ENG)<\/b>, owned by boxerwood<\/i> put up quite a fuss when attempted to be loaded into the starting gate, and eventually had to be led into the number three post blindfolded. The rest of the field loaded easily. At the break larsonisti\u2019s<\/i> colt Weinhard<\/b> broke to an impressive three and a quarter length lead. The light gray colt went right out on the lead just as expected. To his outside was the late entry into the Panhandle Park Derby (G3) field, Sense Of Adventure (ENG)<\/b>, trained by staldobbie<\/i>. He too was running as expected, out on the pace behind the leader of the race. Pazsixx\u2019s<\/i> Derby Week Prayer<\/b> followed behind in third towards the inside of the track. Again, this colt was running as expected in the race. Trailing out behind the first three in the field were Neodymium<\/b> and Little Rock Love<\/b>, owned and trained by icbomber12<\/i> and lopo<\/i> respectively. Trailing the field early on out of the gate was pilgrim2\u2019s<\/i> Anotherlemontree (ENG)<\/b>. A proven closer, the chestnut colt would only be biding his time to make a move later on during the race.
Weinhard<\/b> continued to increase his lead, now leading the pace of the race by five lengths over Sense Of Adventure (ENG)<\/b> in second. The rest of the field strung out behind the duo. Already making an early move in the race, Last Council (AUS)<\/b>, owned by robbob<\/i>, had moved up into seventh place, finding a hole on the inside near the rail. Falling back with the moving-up of the Australian-bred colt, highhoofn<\/i>\u2019s Speyside Stride<\/b> was pushed back into eighth. Spur\u2019s Dancer (IRE)<\/b>, trained and owned by hollandia3<\/i>, was also making an early move in the race and had stuck into the tenth spot, going around Coyote Indian (ENG)<\/b>. Back by fifteen lengths from Weinhard<\/b> running on the lead was Anotherlemontree (ENG)<\/b>, still running at the back of the pack.
Going into the stretch, Weinhard<\/b>, who had been the pacesetter for the entire race, was starting to show some fatigue and was losing ground as the field started to make their way for home. He now held a lead of four and a quart lengths, which was diminishing quickly as the rest of the field caught up. Last Council (AUS)<\/b> had powered by on the inside rail and was now up in second, breezing by Sense Of Adventure (ENG)<\/b> who now held onto third. Spur\u2019s Dancer (IRE)<\/b> had moved up into fourth now, on the outside of horses. Little Rock Love<\/b> was still maintaining his own in fifth ahead of Neodymium<\/b> who had dropped back to seven and a quarter lengths off the pace now of Weinhard<\/b>. In seventh, Derby Week Prayer<\/b> had also dropped back along with super24<\/i>\u2019s Alcapulco Gold (IRE)<\/b>. Speyside Stride<\/b> was running back in ninth, just ahead of woodhead\u2019s<\/i> Half A Heart<\/b>. Slipping back in position but finally starting to get into gear, Coyote Indian (ENG)<\/b> was in eleventh in front of the race favorite Zapingo (IRE)<\/b>, owned by andros<\/i> who wasn\u2019t doing much of anything so far in the race. Anotherlemontree<\/b> was starting to pick up the pace now and pour on the steam as the field headed for home, leaving Nickel Shooter (CAN)<\/b>, trained by racetrader<\/i>, at the back of the field as they headed for home.
As the field came down the final furlongs to the stretch the lead of Weinhard<\/b> quickly gave way as the light gray colt faded in the final furlongs and the closers began to gain ground. Last Council (AUS)<\/b> and Spur\u2019s Dancer (IRE)<\/b> both blew by him on either side, going down to a duel between the two. On the outside, Spur\u2019s Dancer (IRE)<\/b> had more in the tank and took the Panhandle Park Derby (G3) by two lengths at the wire under jockey T. Barnett. Last Council (AUS)<\/b> came home third with Winehard<\/b> staying on for third.
Also rans: Zapingo (IRE)<\/b>, Anotherlemontree (ENG)<\/b>, Little Rock Love<\/b>, Sense Of Adventure (ENG)<\/b>, Half A Heart<\/b>, Alcapulco Gold (IRE)<\/b>, Coyote Indian (ENG)<\/b>, Neodymium<\/b>, Derby Week Prayer<\/b>, Speyside Stride<\/b>, and Nickel Shooter (CAN)<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
14\/1 Shot Dances to Wire in Victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"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-7631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7631","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\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}