After a difficult battle down the stretch, Nancy Vanier and Cartwright
Thoroughbred’s STRAIGHT LINE (Boundary) pulled away from 4-5 favorite Vicarage
(Vicar), who had led through splits of :22 1/5 and :44 2/5, to earn the victory
in the $112,200
Ack Ack H. (G3)
on Churchill Downs’ opening day Sunday. Settled in third by jockey Shaun
Bridgmohan, the three-year-old dark bay sat off the pace before challenging the
leader in the final furlong and completing the 7 1/2-furlong event in 1:28 1/5
on the fast track.
The Harvey Vanier trainee crossed the wire 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Vicarage to
return $20.60, $7.20 and $4.60 while leading exotics of $63.40 (exacta), $263.60
(trifecta) and $1,136.70 for the 3-8-6-2 superfecta. Vicarage gave back $3 and
$2.20 for the place, finishing another 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Level Playingfield
(Level Sands) in third, who returned $3 at 5-1.
Go Now (Go for Gin), Nakayama Kun (Known Fact), Artemus Sunrise (Tale of the
Cat), Nkosi Reigns (Out of Place), Sterling Gold (Mutakddim) and Britt’s Jules
(Jules) followed the top three.
Bred in Kentucky by R. Alex Rankin and Louis Wright, Straight Line is out of the
Strawberry Road (Aus) mare Zanti and counts himself as a half-brother to a
weanling filly by Jump Start. He comes off a second to Vicarage in the
Perryville S. (G3) at Keeneland and improves his
record to 14-6-2-0 with earnings of $333,776. Straight Line was a $15,000
Keeneland September Yearling Sales purchase in 2003.