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Stay Close
Photo Credit: Jim McCue/MJC
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BALTIMORE, 04-24-08---Following the same path as he did last year, Michael Zwiesler will send Stay Close (GB) to Pimlico Race Course looking to defend his title in the $50,000 Henry S. Clark Stakes. Ten older runners are entered in the grassy, one mile test on Saturday afternoon.
Last year Stay Close (5-2) won an open allowance by five lengths on the infield at Tampa before taking the Clark. This year he beat the same level of runners, at the same venue, by 4-1/2 lengths. Rosie Napravnik will get her first chance aboard Stay Close, a 6-year-old by Belong To Me who has won seven of twenty starts on the grass, including the Schapiro Memorial Handicap at Laurel last September.
“It’s a tough spot but I have a nice horse who has never run a bad race for me,” Zwiesler said. “I didn’t realize he was doing the same thing as last year. He won their big open allowance (at Tampa) last year and he did it again. I couldn’t find a prep for him off the layoff so we went in there and we won it. We have a mile and sixteenth training track at the farm (in Delaware). He’s been training here. He’s doing really good.”
Stay Close will have to catch a number of pacemakers including Starvinsky (3-1), who has won four of eight starts on the grass including the Nick Shuk Memorial last August. He finished a good second in Aqueduct’s Volponi Stakes after a pair of off the board finishes in graded tests. Mario Pino will ride for trainer Bruce Jackson.
Rodney Jenkins will send front runner Kona Blend (7-2) into the mix with Horacio Karamanos at the controls. Kona Blend won two grassy stakes at Colonial Downs, both restricted to Virginia-breds. In his final try of 2007 he finished a strong third in the Fayette Stakes and has not been out since.
Yankee Master (6-1) is another with pace intentions. He’ll carry Nick Santagata for trainer Linda Rice, who sends the horse to Pimlico from Florida by way of Keeneland, where he finished third in a one mile turf allowance.
Napravnik rode Westmoreland (10-1) to a near miss second at Gulfstream Park on April 5. No one has been named to the Michael Pino trainee. Westmoreland has won five races on the grass.
Well traveled Ramazutti (10-1) is a route specialist who dropped in against $40,000 claimers at Santa Anita in his last try. Now trained by James Day, Ramazutti won the Mac Diarmidia Handicap at Gulfstream for Todd Pletcher a year ago.
Forty Crowns (12-1) returns to his most successful surface. He won the Maryland Million Turf for trainer Eddie Gaudet but he hasn’t won since. Luis Garcia will get another chance aboard the son of Not For Love.
The others are Find Handicap winner Headsandtales (15-1), maiden winner Liscarroll (15-1) and allowance runner Please The Crowd (20-1), who has two career victories on the Pimlico lawn.
-MJC-