William S. Farish, James Elkins Jr. & W. Temple Webber Jr.’s homebred ALUMNI HALL
(A.P. Indy) closely tracked the pacesetting Toratora (With Approval) in Saturday
evening’s $100,000
Maxxam Gold Cup H. at Sam Houston before taking over and going on to
post a three-quarter-of-a-length win under Robby Albarado.
The 4-5 favorite followed Toratora through fractions of :24 1/5 and :49 2/5
before taking a slight lead. Battling with three rivals rounding
the turn, Alumni Hall lost all but Colonial Colony (Pleasant Colony) in the
stretch duel before pulling away to cross the finish line first.
Trained by Neil Howard, the six-year-old horse completed nine furlongs in 1:51
over the fast track.
Alumni Hall rewarded his backers with payouts of $3.60, $2.40 and $2.40, leading the
$9.60 exacta, $99.80 trifecta and $392.20 superfecta (2-6-1-5).
Colonial Colony, hero of the Stephen Foster (G1) last year, held on for second, returning $3.20 and $3.20 as the 7-2 second
favorite. Toratora rounded out the top three paying $5.60 at 30-1.
Intelligent Male (Ride the Storm), Goosey Moose (Shaquin), Verdict’s Peak
(Peaks and Valleys) and Wally’s Choice (Quick Cut) rounded out the order of
finish.
Alumni Hall recorded his second stakes win with this one, after taking the
Black Tie Affair H. in July. The chestnut now owns a mark of 11-5-2-1 with
$251,045 in earnings.
Bred in Kentucky, Alumni Hall is out of the stakes-winning and Grade 1-placed Private Status (Alydar). He is a full brother to Kentucky Oaks (G1)
winner Secret Status and a half-sibling to an unnamed yearling filly by Dixieland Band.
The other stakes on the card were the $50,000
Sam
Houston Distaff, won by ACADEMIC ANGEL (Royal Academy), and the $50,000
Sam
Houston Sprint H., captured by TWO DOWN AUTOMATIC (Smoke Glacken).