Thursday’s $12,000 Lifes A Holiday Stakes at Maywood Park turned into quite a nail biter for chalk players.
Each performer of the heavily favoured entry of Skyline Road and King Mufasa both made breaks during the mile. The 1-9 favourites still made good on their favoured status, though, as Skyline Road prevailed by three and a quarter lengths in 2:00.4 over a ‘sloppy’ track.
After speeding to the top from Post 8, King Mufasa (driven by Mike Oosting) appeared to take a bad step just after leading the field through an opening quarter in :28. After making a nasty break, Oosting did a magnificent job of gathering up the division leader on the turn, but not before they had dropped all the way back to seventh – Riets Kid (Dean Magee) led the field through the half in :59.2.
Circling around rivals as the field moved onto the backstretch, the Mike Brink trainee, who had won 14 of 15 starts this season, was back in front as the field hit the three-quarter-mile mark in 1:30.2.
Meanwhile, entrymate Skyline Road (Casey Leonard), who made a break early in the race and was last at the opening call, was circling up from the back of the pack and picked off one rival after another as he moved up to challenge as the field moved into the final turn.
In full flight as the diagonally-gaited sophomores moved around the final turn, Skyline Road trotted right by his entrymate as the field straightened for the money. He eventually drew off for his fourth win of the season. King Mufasa turned in an unbelievable effort to finish in the runner-up role, while Macks Gold Band (John De Long) was third.
Sent off at odds of 1-9, the entry returned $2.20 and $2.10. There was no Show wagering on the race. With the win, Skyline Road now sports a record of 4-3-2 from 17 starts this season with earnings of $54,775 for ‘Bill’ Wright, Geis Enterprise and the Ervin Miller Stable.
(Maywood)