Marchman leads the way in Shakertown

"Robby made a great decision right away from there," Calhoun said. "The horse

was going very easy the first quarter mile and I think that won the race. Robby

made some split-second decisions and obviously made the right decision this

time."

"Turning for home, I squeezed on him and went home," Albarado added. "I rode

him last time in New Orleans and he kind of stuck to the fence there. I made the

lead for a little point and I kind of let his head go a little bit."

Positive Side wound up three-quarters of a length ahead of Something Extra in

third. Hogy, Go Blue or Go Home, Gantry, and 3-1 favorite Havelock were next

under the wire. Shrinking

Violet and No Silent dead-heated for eighth. Channel Marker, Animal Style and Ancil rounded out the order

of finish, and Tour Guide was scratched.

Marchman broke his maiden in third career start, defeating special weight

rivals over the turf at Churchill Downs last year in June, and captured an

optional claiming event over Del Mar's Polytrack two starts later. He followed

with a sixth in his stakes debut, the six-furlong Phoenix over Keeneland's

Polytrack last October, and recorded a second in the six-furlong Bet on Sunshine

on Churchill Downs' main track a month later.

The son of Sharp Humor returned to the turf at Fair Ground in late November,

registering his first stakes victory in the one-mile Woodchopper, and earned a

brief freshening after a 10th in the grassy Buddy Diliberto Memorial at 1 1/16

miles in mid-December. Marchman returned to action in February, posting a third

in an off-the-turf optional claiming event before finishing a respectable third

in his previous outing, the March 15 Colonel Power at about 5 1/2 furlongs on

turf.

"We thought the firm turf here would help him a lot," Calhoun said. "He's a

big, heavy horse and we thought the firmer going would be good for him and he

obviously likes the grass."

Bred in Kentucky by Lynn and Kathy Jones, Marchman RNA'ed as a yearling at

the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Maryland October sale before selling for $90,000 to his

owners at the OBS April two-year-old sale in 2012. He is the only registered

foal out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Sookie Sookie and his third maternal

dam, the With Approval mare One Over Prime, produced multiple Grade 3 hero

Twilight Meteor.

A pair of Canadian champion two-year-old fillies, Poetically and Primaly;

Grade 1 winner Citronnade; and Grade 3 victor Whiskey Wisdom all hail from

Marchman's fourth maternal dam.

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