Counting Stars Wheels Back to Take Oaklawn's Year's End
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Photo: Coady Media/Nicole Dankanich
Counting Stars wins the Year's End Stakes at Oaklawn Park
A return on 13 days' rest and a stretch out from a sprint to a route proved insignificant obstacles for Counting Stars , who improved to 3-for-4 in romping in the $150,000 Year's End Stakes Dec. 27 at Oaklawn Park.
The victory in the Year's End marked her second stakes win of the meet following a 4-length scamper in the 6-furlong Astral Spa Overnight Stakes Dec. 14, and was even more dominant. A wide fourth after an opening quarter-mile in :23.58 set by longshot Fizzy Lass , Counting Stars advanced down the backstretch to sit a close third behind Fizzy Lass and Paving after a half-mile in a moderate :47.95. Then it was all Counting Stars. The Mark Casse trainee seized command with 6 furlongs in 1:13.03 and cruised under the wire 6 lengths in front.
"She finished strong," jockey Francisco Arrieta said.
Counting Stars raced a mile on a fast track in 1:38.68, paying $4.40 to win as the favorite.
Newtown Pike ran second at 18-1 odds ahead of third-place Scot's Law . Paving weakened to fourth.
The winner, a bay 2-year-old daughter of second-crop sire Honor A. P. out of the Paynter mare Paynterbynumbers , was bred by His Royal Highness Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud in Kentucky and purchased by owner West Point Thoroughbreds for $150,000 from the Wildheart Thoroughbreds consignment to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training earlier this year.