“I think you just saw the best in the Midwest,” trainer Tom Amoss said of the quality of the 13 contestants in Saturday’s Grade III $100,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity.
If that’s the case, Amoss went to the winner’s circle with the best 2-year-old in the Midwest.
With Leonardo Goncalves in the saddle, Shared Property caught another stretch-runner, blue-blooded 2.40-1 favorite Take Charge Indy, near the finish line to win the 1-mile Polytrack race by one length in 1:37.93.
It was only the second start for the gelding, a 4-length winner when he made his debut in a 3/4-mile race at Ellis Park in July.
“Today he made the transition from one to two turns and that was what we were looking to do,” Amoss said. “He proved he can run on a synthetic surface. He got in a tough spot on the turn for home and he overcame that.”
Take Charge Indy’s jockey, Arlington leader James Graham, believes the son of 1992 Horse of the Year A.P. Indy and the accomplished mare, Take Charge Lady, would have won the race if he had stayed focused after making a strong move to gain the lead at the stretch call.
“He’s still kind of green,” Graham said. “Coming out of the turn for home I asked him to go on and he started looking at the crowd. He lost concentration.”
A 16-1 long shot, Rocket Twentyone, struck from just off the pace to take the Futurity’s sister race, the Grade III $100,000 Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes, by half a length in 1:39.13. Essence Of Bubbles, the leader until the late stages, held on for second, finishing half a length in front of Ann Of The Dance, who made a strong rally after being last in the field of nine with a half-mile to run.
“A little more distance and she would have one,” said Ann Of The Dance’s rider, Diego Sanchez.
Like Shared Property, Rocket Twentyone had run in only one previous race, romping to a 61/2 -length triumph for owner Frank Fletcher and trainer W.T. Howard in a 3/4 –mile at Arlington.
“From the first time I got on this filly, I told Mr. Howard she was going to win the Lassie,” jockey Eusebio Razo said. “I had a feeling she was special.
“She can run either way (close to the lead or come from behind). The first time I rode her she didn’t break well. Today she left the gate in hand and was nice and comfortable on the backside. I was worried about the horse in front but I knew when I asked my filly she’d make her run to the end.”
Always Here Too, a filly trained by Amoss and ridden by Goncalves, was dispatched as the 2.60-1 favorite in the Lassie but wound up fifth, never a factor.
“I don’t think she liked the track,” Goncalves said.
