|
#5 Arcata
Photo Credit: Jim McCue/MJC
|
LAUREL, MD. 03-29-08---Joseph Shields, Jr.’s Arcata won a stirring stretch duel to capture the $80,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Handicap, the feature race of the day at Laurel Park.
Jockey Jeremy Rose was aboard the grey-roan son of Wagon Limit for trainer Graham Motion. At the end of the nine furlong test on the main track, Arcata had won by a nose over Eddie C. and jockey J.D. Acosta, with Forty Crowns another 9-3/4 lengths back in third. His winning time was 1:53. Arcata paid $10. The exacta came back $41.20 and the triple paid $132.80.
The son of Wagon Limit was winning his first stakes race. The four-year-old colt has now won four of his last five, all under jockey Rose and improved his record to five wins and eight in the money finishes in 10 starts.
“I thought he clearly got me,” Rose said. “I must have had my head down at the right time. If you watch the replay his head really doesn’t go down a whole lot where mine is dropping, dropping and he got it at the right time.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Acosta said. “I thought we won it and so did Jeremy.”
Eddie C. had won a pair of races at Laurel since arriving in the Chris Grove barn earlier this year, including a nine and a half length score at the distance with Rose in the irons.
“Coming into the race I knew Eddie C. was the one to beat,” Rose said. “He made an early move at the three-eighths pole and I had to let him go. Luckily I came back to beat him.”
-MJC-