William Farish’s homebred MIDWAY ROAD (Jade Hunter) led from the start of
Saturday’s $60,000
Tenacious H. at Fair Grounds, but he appeared to be in
serious trouble when passed in the stretch of
the 1 1/16-mile test by Pie N Burger (Twining). However, the
gutsy four-year-old colt battled back along the inside under regular rider Robby Albarado and managed to get his nose in front at the wire to earn his third
stakes victory this year.
“He sure had a lot of fight in him today,” said Albarado, who won three races
Saturday to increase his career total to 2,998. “He ran well being on the inside
of a horse.”
Unfortunately, the race was marred by the death of Spanish Empire (Pleasant
Colony), who was eased entering the final turn.
Trained by Neil Howard, Midway Road already captured the Fayette S. (G3) and
Ben Ali S. (G3) at Keeneland and put up a final time of 1:45 2/5 here after
setting splits of :47 4/5 and 1:12 4/5. Grade 3 victor Pie N Burger finished three
parts of a length ahead of Kodema (Seeking the Gold), who was followed by Absent
Friend (Runaway Groom) and Super Derby (G2) hero Fantasticat (Storm Cat).
Midway Road comes from the same connections of last year’s Horse of the Year,
Mineshaft, and now owns a record of 17-7-2-2 with $695,060 in earnings. He’ll be
trained up to the $100,000 Mineshaft H. (G3), named after his former stablemate,
on February 12 before trying the New Orleans H. (G2) on March 12.