Cruizin K C, driven by lessee and trainer Mark O’Mara, came from nine lengths off the pace early to sweep to a convincing lifetime-best 1:51.1 victory in Pompano Park’s Open Handicap on Saturday night.
The gelded five-year-old son of Mach Three paced his final three-quarters in 1:22.3 and last half in a tad better than :53.3 to whiz by the pacesetting McSocks and then the deep stretch leader McGreat to score by three-quarters of a length. Village Jackson and Oozies Bad Boy picked up the final cheques with Northern Companion, Yankees In Six and Talk To Tony following.
With McSocks, the lukewarm 5-2 favourite, clocking panels of :26.4, :56.2 and 1:23.3 for Bruce Ranger, Village Jackson (Kevin Wallis) was getting the garden journey with McGreat (Dave Ingraham) third but on the move three-eighths from home. The latter, collared McSocks midway through the lane, but was unable to hold off Cruizin K C and his final quarter of :27.
“I wanted to make sure of two things...one, that we didn’t have a repeat of last week’s situation,” said O'Mara referring to when Cruizin K C lost his composure and never made the gate, “and two, to get a jump on Northern Companion, who can roll off that :54 final half. So I kind of wended my way up into contention during the last lap and 'Cruizin' did the rest. He is something!”
For Cruizin K C, it was his fifth win in nine starts this year sending his seasonal bounty to $22,160 -- almost as much as he won in all of his debut season in 2012 ($23,610).
Other quick miles on the card went to Card Hustler (Wallis) in 1:51.1, Ricks Sign (Santeramo) 1:51.1, Diamond Star (Ranger) 1:51.4 and Stevie Rays Dream (Hennessey) in 1:51.4.
(With files from Pompano Park)