G2 winner Runnin’toluvya back in action Thursday
Runnin’toluvya won the G2 Charles Town Classic. Photo by Allison Janezic.
Last time out, Runnin’toluvya pulled the big upset, winning the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic at his home track.
“It’s Charles Town’s Kentucky Derby,” said Runnin’toluvya’s trainer and co-owner, Tim Grams. “And the Kentucky Derby came early for me.”
One race later, the five-year-old Fiber Sonde gelding will take on decidedly more modest company. He is the 3-5 morning line favorite in a $29,000 allowance for West Virginia-breds this evening, and with four of the nine originally entered scratched, figures to go down even lower.
Runnin’toluvya has won 12 of 16 career starts, with more than $900,000 in earnings — credentials that dwarf those of his rivals. He enters this seven-furlong tilt with wins in nine straight races and 10 of his last 11. Regular pilot Oscar Flores is named.
If there’s something to give his rivals hope here — and there’s not much — it’s that three of his last four wins have come going the three-turn distance of 1 1/8 miles and here will travel just seven-eighths.
The top two rivals he’ll see here both are runners he’s bested in recent starts.
The Jeff Runco trainee North Atlantic is the second choice here at 5-1. The six-year-old Ghostzapper gelding ran second to Runnin’toluvya in the West Virginia Breeders Classic and the A Huevo Stakes, both at 1 1/8 miles. He kicked off his 2019 with an allowance win at this evening’s seven-furlong trip and then ran second in the seven-furlong Confucius Say Stakes on the Charles Town Classic undercard.
A winner in 14 of 34 starts, North Atlantic has earned more than $450,000 and will have Arnaldo Bocachica in the irons.
The Glenn Harrison-trained Mean Bean is 8-1 on the morning line. A seven-time winner in his career, Mean Bean was third in the Confucius Say and also finished third prior to that in the Russell Road Overnight Prep, behind Runnin’toluvya. Fredy Peltroche will ride.
Prince of Windsor (12-1) and Little Big Sime (20-1) round out the field. The test is carded as race seven, with a scheduled post time of 9:49.
