Photo: CDI
Feel The Thunder Stable’s Gran Estreno, a two-time
winner of the Grade III Washington Park Handicap over Arlington’s
synthetic surface in Chicago,
proved equally proficient in Grade III company on the grass by capturing
Saturday’s Grade III Col. E. R. Bradley Handicap on Fair Grounds’ Stall-Wilson
turf course with a clear-cut come-from-behind win by 1 1/4-lengths.
“He’s really adaptable,” said trainer Mike Stidham
immediately after the race. “I told Rosie (winning jockey Anna Napravnik)
to let him sit where he’s comfortable. She’s got a tremendous amount of ability
and she can judge those things. He can be up close or he can come from the
back. He continues to amaze me. He’s amazed me in his last four or five races,
like he’s almost changed his style as an 8-year-old.”
Over the course of his lengthy career, the Argentine-bred
Gran Estreno has won 14 times in 35 lifetime starts and amassed earnings of
$543,175.
“He’s a great horse to ride,” said Napravnik, who was
aboard Gran Estreno for the first time in a race. “I’ve watched him train in
the mornings and he’s very cool to ride.”
Gran Estreno returned mutuels of $8.20, $4.40 and $3.20 and
accomplished the about 1 1/16-mile distance over a Stall-Wilson turf course
rated “yielding” in 1:46.04.
David Holloway Racing’s Dubious Miss pressed the
early pace, could not stay with the winner when challenged in mid-stretch but
continued willingly to be clearly second best, finishing a length to the good
of Henry Pabst’s Joinem. Dubious Miss paid $6.20 and $3.80 while Joinem
returned $3.60 to show.
Sam-Son Farms’ Red Strike made the pace in the Col.
Bradley with early splits of 25.04 and 50.93 but weakened to fourth in the
stretch.