Trainer Peter Eurton had a quick stop to make Sunday morning at Keeneland
before catching a flight to Los Angeles across the road at Blue Grass Airport.
He had to check on Madame Cactus, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Raven
Run.
“She will go back home Tuesday,” said Eurton, who is based at Santa Anita.
“Her next start probably will be the La Brea at the end of December.”
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Marc Ferrell, Madame Cactus was an also-eligible for the
race, which was limited to 14 starters, and needed two scratches to run
Saturday.
“That was a first for me,” Eurton said of drawing in to a graded stakes and then
winning the race. “And then, how many times do you see a ’16’ win?”
Ridden by Joe Rocco Jr., Madame Cactus got up in the final strides to
edge Eden Prairie by a neck.
“I thought she would run well,” trainer Neil Pessin said of Eden Prairie. “It
was great to be second, but still a little disappointed not to win, especially
for her to run as well as she did and not win.”
Pessin said Eden Prairie would be headed to Fair Grounds.
“We had pointed to this race for two months,” Pessin said. “We will look for
something on the dirt or turf at Fair Grounds. There is no Polytrack for a
while.”
Third-place finisher My Option, who wound up a neck behind Eden Prairie, is
scheduled to return to Chicago on Wednesday, according to Drew Coontz, assistant
to trainer Chris Block.
“She’s a tough filly,” Coontz said. “She still never has finished off the board
in her career.”
Ciao Bella Luna, winner of this spring’s Beaumont here, finished fourth in
her bid to pull off the Beaumont-Raven Run double.
“She’s fine this morning,” trainer Wayne Catalano said of Ciao Bella Luna.
Lighthouse Bay, winner of the Prioress at Saratoga this summer, was the
defection Madame Cactus needed to get in the race.
“She had trained well on the training track yesterday morning,” trainer George
Weaver said. “The state vet came by at 11 and said I needed to take a look at
something. She had a foot bruise or an abscess in her left front.”
The Raven Run marked the second consecutive race from which Lighthouse Bay
had to be scratched. On October 2, she acted up in the starting gate and sustained
a superficial injury.
“I have never had that happen to me two races in a row,” Weaver said. “And then
Joe (Rocco) gets on the winner.”
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