By Ray Cotolo, for the Meadowlands
Racetrack
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – Driver Dexter
Dunn may have been locked for life with Fast As The Wind around the final turn,
but just enough room opened at the pylons for the 3-2 favorite to skim through
and nail the 3-2 second choice Coach K Hanover at the line of the $300,960
Kindergarten Classic Final for 2-year-old trotting colts and geldings on
Saturday (Nov. 13) at The Meadowlands.
Fast As The Wind fired off the wings
from post 9 for the front but settled for the pocket as Ake Svanstedt and Coach
K Hanover clicked the first quarter in :27.2. Robertsin raced third up the
backside with Pretender slightly gapped in fourth to a :56.1 half.
With action dormant through the first
half, Pretender pulled out of fourth to the final turn and blitzed Coach K
Hanover to three-quarters and pinned Fast As The Wind to the pegs in the
process. Pretender stayed to Coach K Hanover’s side through three-quarters in
1:25.4 despite losing ground overland, but off the turn Pretender surged after
Coach K Hanover while Fast As The Wind needed clearance.
“[Ake Svanstedt] pretty quickly put
me back in the two-hole there didn’t he,” Dexter Dunn said after the race. “I
actually went to move onto Andy [McCarthy driving Pretender]’s back coming off
the three-quarters there and Ake [Svanstedt]’s one kicked pretty hard when he
saw me do that. So I thought I was going to lose a couple lengths if I had to
go around Andy’s horse and I took my chance and he got up just in time.”
Luck for Dunn came at the misfortune
of Andy McCarthy, whose colt lost stride as he hit the wheel of Coach K Hanover
while the tempo-setter drifted off the pylons. The developed opening gave Fast
As The Wind a wide enough lane to scoot into competition late and land a head
in front of Coach K Hanover at the end of a 1:55 mile. Pretender’s break in
stride fell as interference by Coach K Hanover, prompting the judges to
disqualify him from second to fifth. Robertsin was elevated from third to
second with Ken’s Walner assuming third and Pretender taking fourth.
“[Ake Svanstedt] had a glance around,
I don’t know if he wasn’t happy on the front with his one,” Dunn said after the
race. “But as soon as I came off his helmet, he went on a bit so we dove back
in there. Fast As The Wind is just so versatile – you use him off the gate,
he’ll drop in a hole, relaxes and does his best at the end of the mile.”
Fast As The Wind, a colt by Cantab
Hall conditioned by Tony Alagna, now owns four wins from 14 starts and has
banked $361,274 for owners Leblanc And Kribbs, Joe Sbrocco and Joe Barbera, the
last of whom shared his excitement for entering The Meadowlands winner’s
circle.
“It’s a very tricky ground over
here,” Barbera said, “but every once in a while you get to touch it. This is
sacred ground and you’ve got to appreciate it because it’s hard to get here.”
Fast As The Wind returned $5 to win.
