Chocolate Ride Wire-to-Wire in FG Handicap
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John Wentworth's Chocolate Ride went right to the front and never looked back to upset the $125,000 Fair Grounds Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Feb. 21 .
Claimed for $40,000 by trainer Brad Cox Nov. 21, for Wentworth, Chocolate Ride recorded the biggest win of his career by posting the 1 3/4-length score.
"My horse broke sharp and I just let him do this thing," winning jockey Florent Geroux said. "No one wanted to go with him, so I took advantage. I was able to slow him down and when I asked him down the lane, he really took off. My horse ran great."
Sent off at 13-1, Chocolate Ride broke on top and set all the fractions on the firm Fair Grounds turf course, covering the half-mile in :49.03 before crossing the wire in 1:48.84 for the 1 1/8-mile distance.
"The horse was training well, so it didn't surprise me," said Cox's assistant, Ricky Giannini. "The race just happened to set up like it did last time and I believe he might have finished faster than he did last time. Just goes to show us that he's improving significantly right now. You know what they say, when horses are doing good, you have to run them. There's no reason to keep them in the barn."
In his last start, Chocolate Ride won an allowance race by 3 1/2 lengths Feb. 7 and might return to action in the $300,000 Mervin H. Muniz, Jr. Memorial Handicap (gr. IIT) at the Fair Grounds March 28.
"Obviously the Muniz will be the target now, being the same distance and track, and he has two wins here now," Giannini said. "Happy to have Florent on him too. He's doing so good here and knows this horse really well."
Glenard, who was making his North American debut after racing in Europe, rallied from eighth to get up for second ahead of Pyrite Mountain.
"It was his first time off the boat," jockey James Graham said of Glenard. "He gave me a big run turning for home and then sort of leveled off in the final sixteenth. He should be better next time and may want to go a mile and a half."
Highball got up to be fourth and was followed by Daddy's Kid, Quadrivium, Dreams Cut Short, Trace Creek, and Golden Soul, with favored Skyring finished last in the 10-horse field. Villandry was an early scratch.
"My horse just didn't seem to want to run today," jockey Mike Smith said of Skyring's effort.
Chocolate Ride was bred in Kentucky by Brian Kahn and is by Candy Ride , out Heatherdoesntbluff. Chocolate Ride returned $28.20 to win, $11.60 to place and $7.40 to show. Glenard paid $7.20 and $4.60, while Pyrite Mountain returned $4 to show.