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Hush of a Storm wins the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park
Joseph P. Morey Trust s $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial winner Hush of a Storm topped a roster of 63 horses that were nominated to the premiere race of Turfway Park s meet, the $250,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (Grade 3).
The Jeff Ruby Steaks, a Road to the Kentucky Derby Championship Series race, will be one of six stakes events carded on Saturday, March 27 at the Florence, Ky. oval. The 1 1/8-mile event over the new Tapeta synthetic surface will award the Top 4 finishers 100-40-20-10 points for the $3 million Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) on May 1.
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Hibiscus Punch and jockey Horacio Karamanos posted a 41-1 upset of the Barbara Fritchie
By early Sunday morning the voice mailbox on Justin Nixon s cell phone was full, and for good reason. Late the previous afternoon, the Laurel Park-based trainer registered the first graded-stakes victory of his career in dramatic fashion with Hibiscus Punch in the $250,000 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3).
Hibiscus Punch rallied to upset Hello Beautiful and Dontletsweetfoolya, both multiple stakes winners coming in on lengthy win streaks, at odds of 41-1. It was also the first graded triumph for the 6-year-old mare, and second in two months for owner-breeders Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson following Eres Tu in the Dec. 26 Allaire du Pont (G3), also at Laurel.
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Hello Beautiful and Sheldon Russell win the Safely Kept by 11 1/4 lengths
With two program favorites for Laurel Park s rescheduled Winter Sprintfest program and another horse listed as second choice on the morning line, trainer Brittany Russell took her stakes trio on a mini road trip to keep them sharp for the big day.
Winter Sprintfest, featuring six stakes, two graded, worth $900,000 in purses, was postponed to Feb. 20 due to a winter storm that hit Laurel leading up to the original Feb. 13 date. The weather also caused training over the main track to be suspended over the weekend.
Areas north of Laurel didn t see as much ice and mixed precipitation, so Russell was able to ship Hello Beautiful, Maythehorsebwithu and Little Huntress the 45 minutes to historic Pimlico Race Course Monday, which remained open for training.