Virginia race fans got their money\u2019s worth with this week\u2019s Red Tejas Challenge.\u00a0 In a furious stretch run, with all five runners piled within a length and a half, Blueblood Schill(KY)<\/b> edged out the competition to grab a thrilling last second victory.\u00a0 This is the third career stakes victory for this filly out of Artie Schiller, and her fourth win in seven starts.\u00a0 She certainly showed no rust in her relatively late three year old debut, after idling since mid-December.\u00a0 The win brings her career earnings to the $355620 mark, an admirable $50802 per race, especially considering the tenth place finishes in her last two prior starts.\u00a0 The stakes win also helped her maintain her 8th<\/sup> place ranking among three year old filly turf sprinters.\u00a0 The field fed me my usual helping of humble pie this week, with my pick predictably trailing the field home, though I like to think I gave a bit of good advice, as well.\u00a0Payouts weren\u2019t spectacular, though the trifecta paid decently.\u00a0 The winner paid $9.60 $4.60 $3.40 across the board.\u00a0 The exacta was a bit light with a $33.00 payout, but made up for by a $228.10 payout in the trifecta.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a field where the oddsmakers called her outclassed, SouthernMelody(JPN)<\/b> edged out in front early, and managed to get some cushion in the early going.\u00a0 She seemed to surprise some of the early speedsters here, opening up a length on the field by the first call.\u00a0 She had tacked on another length by the halfway mark, and was looking a lot tougher than people were giving her credit for at the outset.\u00a0 As they crossed into the second half, the field started jockeying for position for the late run.\u00a0 As they crossed the third call and headed for home, Southern Melody(JPN) was clinging to a half length, with Blueblood Schill(KY) breathing down her neck and the rest of the field bearing down on the both of them.\u00a0 After a determined fight, Blueblood Schill(KY) edged by late in the stretch, but the battle wasn\u2019t over, with Beckinsale(IRE)<\/b> making a determined charge for the lead as the wire came into sight.\u00a0Crossing the wire, Blueblood Schill(KY) had hung on, clinging to a scant three quarters of a length over Beckinsale(IRE).\u00a0 Southern Melody(JPN) hung on for third with a career best run, a length out at the wire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Edge of seat thriller couldn’t have gotten much closer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"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-7883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7883","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\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}