With four horses lined up across the course in the stretch, Red Rifle emerged from the two path and drew off to a clear victory in the $250,000 Bowling Green Handicap (gr. IIT) Aug. 1 at Saratoga Race Course. Watch Video
With Javier Castellano showing the way, Twin Creeks Racing Stables homebred Red Rifle moved into the two path at mid-stretch, just outside Iron Power and inside Imagining, with War Dancer widest in the four-horse tussle. Red Rifle proved to have one final gear, bravely punching through on his way to a second straight graded stakes win.
Red Rifle entered off a clear victory in the Dominion Day Stakes (gr. III) July 1 on the Woodbine Polytrack. The 5-year-old Giant’s Causeway gelding completed the 1 3/8-mile race in 2:13.69 on firm turf, returning $15.40 to win, $6.60 to place, and $4 to show. War Dancer finished second, paying $4.10 and $2.80, while Imagining returned $2.90 to show.
A ground-saving trip early in the Bowling Green likely helped Red Rifle late.
“I was able to take advantage all the way inside on the rail,” Castellano said. “In a long distance, on the grass, the most important thing is to save all the ground. And that’s exactly what I did. He did it very professionally today and I’m very satisfied with the way he did it.”
With his Bowling Green win on grass, Dominion Day victory on Polytrack, and his 2014 Hawthorne Gold Cup (gr. II) score on the Hawthorne Race Course main track, Red Rifle boasts graded stakes wins on turf, synthetic, and dirt surfaces.
By Frank Angst
DRF August 1, 2015
