Favorite Tale Easy Fabulous Strike Winner

There was a reason bettors made PJG Stable's Favorite Tale the 1-2 favorite for the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course; he was the class of the field off a third-place finish in the Oct. 31 TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I).

The 4-year-old Tale of the Cat   gelding ran to his odds and 124-pound highweight assignment and secured his fourth stakes score Nov. 25 with a gate-to-wire victory, breaking evenly in the eight-horse field but securing the lead within a few jumps under jockey Javier Castellano.

Favorite Tale clicked opening fractions of :22.05 and :45.19 before carrying on five-eighths in :57.80 en route to a final time of 1:11 flat for the six-furlong sprint on a fast track. Longshots Majestic Hussar (80-1) and Galiana (50-1) both closed rapidly in the final furlong but could not get to the winner, who finished two lengths clear.

"This horse deserved to win," Castellano said. "We had post 14 in the Breeder's Cup, had to race six- and seven-wide on the entire turn, and got beat less than two lengths. He ran fastest that day, and showed his true class tonight."

Favorite Tale paid $3, $2.40, and $2.20, while Majestic Hussar brought $29.60 and $14.80 with Galiana bringing $9.20. Completing the order of finish were Amelia's Wild Ride, Jack's in the Deck, Scarly Charly, veteran Ben's Cat—gunning for his fourth straight Fabulous Strike win—and Risk Factor. Fabulous Kid was a stewards' scratch.

It was Favorite Tale's second stakes win of the season for trainer Guadalupe Preciado. He also took the Smile Sprint (gr. II) in July, adding to victories in the 2014 Gallant Bob (gr. III) at Parx Racing and that year's Gold Fever Stakes at Belmont Park. He was bred in Pennsylvania by Paul Conaway out of the Grindstone mare Tricky Elaine, is the only graded stakes winner out of his dam, and improved his record to 8-3-3 from 18 starts for earnings of $891,026. 

Preciado said that in the immediate future Favorite Tale will head to Florida, but added with a gleam in his eye, "Dubai is something we might think about."