It was a return to winning ways and it was months in the making along the comeback trail for 2008 Breeders Crown champion trotter Corleone Kosmos
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"It's a big relief to get this one out of the way and only thanks to great owners like Art Rudolph and Bernard Owen that a horse can be given nine months off," trainer and driver Tom Haughton stated in a live trackside TV interview at Pompano Park following a victory in the $14,000 weekly trotting feature on Wednesday. "He needed that time off to get over a lot of nagging little issues, none of them were really major, but sometimes there's no substitute for the time off."
The nine-year-old S Js Photo-Rose Street Gal gelding settled in early for a pocket trip. Keystone Thomas, in rein to Doug Brown, laid down the fractions of :28.2, :57.2, and 1:26.2. Just past the half, Andover America pulled to the outside from last in the field of six but he was not able to draw alongside Keystone Thomas. In the stretch, Haughton moved Corleone Kosmos out of the pocket and he took down a hard fought decision over Keystone Thomas in 1:54.4. It was the 21st career win for Corleone Kosmos and increased his life's earnings to $2,015,550.
"He's really heavily staked to everything this year, and there's another round of sustaining payments to many of those events coming up on April 15. I'm not sure if tonight proves he's really back to championship form. He's a real high anxiety horse in post parade and before the race, but that's not from the long time away, that's just the way of Corleone Kosmos. If he does go north for the stakes races, he'll likely go back into the care of Ross Croghan where he raced earlier in his career."
(With files from Pompano Park)