Photo: CDI
Mrs. Yoshio Fujita’s
Ravi’s Song, unhurried early in Saturday’s featured $60,000
Pelleteri Stakes for
older fillies and mares at Fair Grounds, closed with a crescendo by
hitting all the high notes late to be best by a length and a half at the
wire.
“She made a tremendous late move,” said trainer
Carl Bowman when describing the race to his wife
Diane over the phone immediately after the race. “She really ran her heart out.”
“We’ve really had quite a bit of luck with this whole family,” Bowman noted later when speaking to reporters. “Her mother (Lu
Ravi) won the Fair Grounds Oaks here and the Chou Croute
Stakes twice. But this filly has a lot better mental attitude then her
mother. You couldn’t ever hit Lu Ravi with the whip. If you did, she’d
just stop.”
Jockey
Corey Lanerie was aboard
Ravi’s Song, riding his third winner of the afternoon. The
daughter of Unbridled’s Song accomplished the 1 1/16-mile distance in
1:45.72, increased her career earnings to $198,173 with her fifth
victory in 11 lifetime starts and returned mutuels
of $12.20, $6.20 and $4.20.
“When
I called on her at the three-eighths pole, it was like driving a car,”
Lanerie said. “I was driving in and out of traffic and she was
going pretty fast.”
Jim Tafel’s
Fighter Wing made the
pace with early splits of 24.25 and 48.89, and continued willingly in
the late stages to best Skychai Racing and Twin Creeks Farm et al.’s
Age of Humor by a length for the runner-up spot.
Fighter Wing paid $12 and $6 and Age of Humor returned $5.80 to show.