Avanzare hangs on for Washington Park theft

Avanzare (white cap) the Washington Park for his fifth win in nine career starts (Four Footed Fotos) Seven weeks after narrowly missing a wire-to-wire score in the 1 1/4-mile Arlington Handicap, Avanzare found the cutback to nine furlongs agreeable in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Washington Park Handicap at Arlington. Despite setting pokey fractions of :24 4/5, :50 and 1:15 3/5, Avanzare was unable to separate himself for long in the run to the wire, coming under a serious challenge from 24-1 longshot Hattaash inside the final furlong. Digging deep in the final yards, Avanzare turned back that rival to win by a head in a time of 1:52 3/5. A 3-1 chance, who returned $8.60, Avanzare was guided by Chris Emigh, who was registering his 3,500th career victory. “I thought (Gimmeadrink) would should more gas and that would have scared me, if we hooked up and killed each other,” Emigh said. “I got the jump on him into the turn and slowed it down. Everything turned out perfect. We barely hung on and I’m very happy.”

Hattaash clung to second by a neck over 8-5 favorite Mister Marti Gras, who
was 1 1/2 lengths clear of Fordubai. Gimmeadrink and Only in America rounded out
the order of finish.

A four-year-old gelded son of Grand Reward, Avanzare races for Donato Lanni
and John Youngblood and is trained by Tom Proctor. He debuted last November and
captured his first two starts: a maiden at Churchill Downs and an allowance at
Tampa Bay Downs, both on the grass. Second in his next three outings at Tampa,
Avanzare returned to Churchill for the spring meet and promptly won both a
second- and third-level allowance over the turf.

Last time, in the July 12 Arlington Handicap, Avanzare set pedestrian
fractions before weakening to fourth, three parts of a length behind the winning
Finnegans Wake. After this initial stakes win in his debut on Polytrack,
Avanzare improved his record to 9-5-3-0, $217,180.

Bred in Kentucky by Snow Lantern Thoroughbreds, Avanzare was reared Turn the
Tide, an unraced daughter of Theatrical. His third dam, the Grade 3-winning Miss
Turkana, was produced by the Grade 3-winning Reigning Countess, whose
descendants also include German highweight Mamool and the Grade/Group 3 winners
Aly’s Alley, Grafin, Genovefa, and Zosima.

Avanzare sold for $52,000 as an OBS two-year-old in training.

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