Lothenbach Stables, Inc.’s homebred Mister Marti Gras rallied down the
stretch and overtook the pace-setting Lonesome Street in the final yards
to win the $55,143 Friday afternoon feature at Churchill Downs by a neck.
Trained by Chris Block and ridden to victory by Shaun
Bridgmohan, the 4-year-old gelded son of Belong to Me rated patiently in
sixth in the field of seven through fractions of :24.06, :47.27, and 1:10.81
set by Lonesome Street under Julien Leparoux before angling out in the
stretch and finishing with a furious run on the outside to just get up. Mister
Marti Gras covered the mile over a Matt Winn Turf Course rated “firm” in
1:34.26.
Mister Marti Gras broke from post five as the 2-1 post time
favorite and rewarded his backers with mutuels of $6.20, $3.20 and $2.20.
Lonesome Street finished a neck behind in second and paid $3.80 and $2.40, with
Mystic another length back in third returning
$2.40.
The victory was worth $33,600 and increased the
Kentucky-bred’s bankroll to $330,296 with a record of 4-4-1 from 15 starts.
Also on Friday’s 11-race card, leading trainer Steve
Asmussen won three races – Berberis in Race 5, Awesome Arceno
in Race 8 and Legendary Heart in Race 11 – to bring his season total to
12. The latter was ridden by Julien Leparoux, who rode two winners to
bring his Churchill Downs career win total to 466 and one ahead of Patrick
A. Johnson for 10th all-time at the Louisville
racetrack.
Racing continues Saturday with an 11-race program highlighted
by two Grade III, $100,000 events: the 37th running of the Dogwood (Race 9 at approximately 4:59 p.m.
ET) and the 23rd running of the Aristides (Race 10 at
5:29 p.m. ET). Post time for the first race is 12:45 p.m. ET.