Monavista Crossing Sprints to Third Straight Win in Saturday Feature; Super Hi-5 Carryovers of $3,246 for Sunday’s Opener
Monavista Crossing Sprints to Third Straight Win in Saturday Feature; Super Hi-5 Carryovers of $3,246 for Sunday’s Opener
Tizarunner Sets Dahlia Turf Course Record in Co-Feature Triumph
El Corazon Popular Maiden Winner in Second Career Start
Super Hi-5 Carryovers of $3,246 for Sunday’s Opener
LAUREL, MD – Monavista Crossing, proving her prowess on the turf and her recent comeback at Saratoga Race Course off a 10-month break between races wasn’t an aberration, sprinted to her third consecutive victory in Saturday’s featured eighth race at Laurel Park.
Trained by Ollie Figgins III for his wife, Carisa, Monavista Crossing (2.80) won for the sixth time in nine career starts and fourth in five since being switched to the grass, running 5 ½ furlongs in a sparkling 1:01.34 over a firm Dahlia Turf Course.
“We wanted to make sure her last race wasn’t a fluke,” Figgins’ daughter and assistant, Kelsie Figgins, said. “She’s been doing great. She’s tiny. She’s very small but she loves the grass and it’s working out for her.”
Regular rider Kevin Gomez hustled 4-year-old Monavista Crossing, favored at 2-5 in the $42,000 entry-level allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up, to the front where she sizzled through an opening quarter-mile in 21.66 seconds and a half in 43.93.
Her rivals were still bunched behind her until Monavista Crossing gained separation after straightening for home under a couple of cracks from Gomez’s whip, and had plenty left to withstand a late run from My Sistersledge to win by three-quarters of a length.
“That’s generally her running style. She just makes the lead and tries to just keep going,” Figgins said. “We’ll just kind of see how she comes back and take it from there.”
In Saturday’s co-feature, Three Diamonds Farm’s Tizarunner came flying on the far outside to take the lead past the sixteenth pole and draw off to a 2 ½-length victory in the $45,000 third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up.
The winning time of 1:33.40 for a mile over the firm going broke the previous Dahlia Turf Course record of 1:34.26 set by Tune of the Spirit on Nov. 13, 2005. It was the third win from 13 starts for Tizarunner, whose multiple stakes placings include the 2015 Grey (G3) at Woodbine.
Five weeks after finishing eighth in the Aug. 19 Find at Laurel, his first start since last November, Tizarunner ($29.60) trailed all but two horses through a half-mile as Bombs Away set fractions of 22.72, 45.75 and 1:10.05 before being swallowed up by the field. Jockey Kevin Gomez steered Tizarunner outside to launch their bid around the far turn.
“I knew my horse was coming. By the middle of the turn my horse started kicking,” Gomez said. “He knew it was time to go and it was time to get all the horses in front of me out of the way. In the stretch as soon as I asked him he gave me a run and took it from there. When he got in the clear I had a lot of horse and I knew I was going to get the win.
Gunpowder Farms’ El Corazon ($2.80) was a popular winner in his second career start, stretched out to a mile for a 1 ½-length triumph in Saturday’s fifth race, a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-olds on the main track.
Beaten a nose for second in his Aug. 9 debut going six furlongs at Delaware Park, El Corazon was kept in the clear on the outside by Jevian Toledo behind fractions of 24.52 and 48.87 seconds set by Swingstage. El Corazon swept to the lead rounding the far turn, powered down the center of the track and turned back a belated bid from Tattered to win in 1:39.21.
“I’m very happy with it. He started out nice and slow,” winning trainer Kelly Rubley said. “I think he’s going to be a closer so we were a little concerned when he sat so close, but it seemed to work because there was no pace in here today.”
El Corazon, a bay son of Grade 1 winner Quality Road, was purchased for $100,000 out of Keeneland’s September yearling sale last fall. He had worked four times at the Fair Hill Training Center since his debut.
“His pedigree is not really a sprinter type and we started him short first time out, just to get it out of his system,” Rubley said. “I think he’s going to want to be a distance horse. He’s classy, and we like him.”
Notes: Jockeys Jevian Toledo and Kevin Gomez each registered a riding triple Saturday. Toledo won aboard Enasoit ($7.80) in the first race, El Corazon ($2.80) in the fifth and Line of Music ($18.60) in the sixth, while Gomez was first with Monavista Crossing ($2.80) in the eighth, Tizarunner ($29.60) in the 11th and Antietam Creek ($19.60) in the 12th. Jockey Steve Hamilton had a two-win day with Chocomount ($11.80) in the third and Circle R ($6.20) in the ninth.
Rainbow 6 Carryover: $764.49
Super Hi-5 Carryover: $3,246.24
