Sonny Inspired Runs Away With Ben's Cat

Sonny Inspired Runs Away With Ben's Cat

LAUREL, MD - Sonny Inspired, a 5-year-old gelded son of Artie Schiller, appears to only be getting better with age after holding off a late rally by Any Court Inastorm at Laurel Park to win Saturday's $75,000 The Ben's Cat, a six-furlong event for Maryland breds.
 
Sonny Inspired, who covered the a good track in 1:11.23 under jockey Jevian Toledo, has won The Ben's Cat and Fire Plug and finished third in the General George (G3) since trainer Phil Schoenthal adjusted the gelding's blinkers before the Jan. 16 Fire Plug.
 
Sonny Inspired returned $4. 
 
Purchased by D Hatman Thoroughbreds for $20,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic 2012 Eastern Fall Yearling Sale, Sonny Inspired has now won six of 29 starts - has finished first, second of third 19 times - and has earned $361,324.
 
Toledo broke Sonny Inspired out of the gate cleanly and was rated in fourth down the backstretch while D C Dancer, who broke a step slow, went to the front and set an opening quarter of :23.07 while being pressed by Maryland Million Sprint winner Jack's in the Deck and Sonny Inspired's stablemate Gursky.
 
"I was a little surprised when they all stacked up like that on the front end," Schoenthal said. "I thought Gursky was going to go to the lead because that was our plan. Sonny was closer than we thought."
 
Around the final turn, Toledo began moving Sonny Inspired closer to the leaders, angled out three-wide entering the stretch, and drove to the front inside the final eighth.
 
Schoenthal said the Maryland Sprint (G3) on Preakness Day Saturday, May 21, but he may run before in the $1.25 million Charles Town Classic April 23. "It will be fun running for a million dollars," he said. "And if we run third or fourth we could make a lot of money."
 
NOTE
 
The Harrison Johnson Memorial Stakes was cancelled Saturday for lack of entries, but that did not deter about 40 of his many friends and family members from showing up at Laurel Park for their annual ceremony. The group gathered in the winner's circle after the fifth race, which was named in his honor. "Track management has been wonderful to us" Johnson's wife Lynette stated after the ceremony. "It gives all of us a chance to get together each year." Johnson's best horse Gusty O’Shay won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga in 1973.