With the Arlington Million on its two-year sabattical, Hawthorne Race Course’s Grade III $150,000 Robert F. Carey Memorial Handicap has succeeded it as the Chicago circuit’s top grass race for older horses.
Saturday’s running befit the Carey’s current stature.
It ended in a fast and furious fight to the finish line that saw less than three-fourths of a length separating the first horse from the fourth.
The winner was the local horse on the inside, Ray’s Approval. The son of the 1990 Million runner-up and Canadian champion With Approval took the lead at the start and refused to surrender it.
Kentucky invader Stay Sound lost by a pug nose after rallying from far back and charging down the stretch four-wide to make his sneak attack. The runner-up came so close that Earlie Fires, who was on Ray’s Approval, congratulated Stay Sound’s jockey, Tony D’Amico, thinking the stretch-runner had nailed him.
Inkatha, the 3-5 favorite from the stable of Hall-of-Fame trainer Bill Mott, was a neck behind in third, while Canadian invader Sky Colony wound up an impressive fourth in the field of nine.
The way the one-mile race was won was a testimonial to the reputation for riding excellence on the grass that Fires has established during his 35-year career. While Chicago’s all-time leading rider was comfortably setting the pace for the opening three quarters, he was preparing for the challenge from Inkatha’s rider, Mark Guidry, that came in the stretch.
“Mark’s horse was the class of the race, but I thought when he got next to me my horse would run harder and be able to hold him off,” said Fires. “All along I was most worried about the horse who came on the outside (Stay Sound)–my horse didn’t see that horse and he almost got us in the last jump. That’s why I congratulated Tony. I thought he’d won.”
In D’Amico’s opinion, a mile is a little too short for a horse with Stay Sound’s style. “We just ran out of real estate,” said D’Amico. “You can’t make him run any sooner–he dictates when he wants to pick the pace up.”
Inkatha was boxed in along the rail, but Guidry found a narrow hole turning for home and angled out to make his run alongside the pace-setter. Down the stretch the two horses engaged in a head-to-head struggle.
“I was able to get out without losing ground,” said Guidry. “I thought I had it, but I just couldn’t get by.”
Scoring his first victory in five starts this year, Ray’s Approval was clocked in 1 minute 37 seconds on a course that was listed as firm but was softened by Friday’s brief rainstorm. The newly minted graded stakes winner yielded betting payoffs of $41.20, $11.40 and $5.
In his last race last year at Calder and his first two starts this year at Gulfstream, Ray’s Approval ran in claiming races with price tags ranging from $50,000 to $75,000. Fortunately for owner James Orr Jr. and trainer Robert Irwin, the 6-year-old gelding wasn’t claimed.
After finishing second in a Feb. 6 Gulfstream grass race, Ray’s Approval didn’t run again until he was a distant fifth in a July 2 race at Hawthorne that was moved from the turf to the dirt because of weather conditions.
“There was nothing wrong with him,” said Irwin, explaining the five-month hiatus.
“I just couldn’t find any turf races for him. This horse doesn’t like the dirt. He’s strictly a turf horse.”
