Bright Dawn impresses in Coin Collector win

Bright Dawn was much the best in Saturday’s Coin Collector Stakes at Charles Town. Photo by Coady Photography. 

There’s no racing in Maryland right now. But that didn’t prevent a couple of Laurel Park-based shippers from earning stakes wins at Charles Town over the weekend.

The speedy Twirling Owen zipped to a long lead en route to victory in Friday night’s It’s Binn Too Long Stakes for three-year-old West Virginia-bred fillies, while on Saturday Bright Dawn made a three-wide surge to victory in the Coin Collector for three-year-old state-breds.

Despite the presence of the Crystal Pickett-trained Hypothesis, a two-time stakes winner from four starts prior to the Coin Collector, it was Bright Dawn who went off the even-money favorite. The Ferris Allen trainee was a $70,000 auction purchase as a two-year-old at last May’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic two-year-olds in training sale. Owned by Burning Daylight Farms, the Itsmyluckyday colt entered with a win and a second from two starts.

In the Coin Collector, Bright Dawn was in the rear of a very tightly bunched field in the early stages of the 4 1/2-furlong test. But under jockey J. D. Acosta, he quickly moved to challenge leader Hypothesis as the field neared the turn.

Hypothesis, with regular pilot Gerald Almodovar up, dueled briefly with Bright Dawn but could not go on with that runner, though he did end up a clear second. Bright Dawn pulled away to win by nearly three lengths in 51.60 seconds for the one-turn dash distance. Hypothesis was another three lengths clear of third choice Fancy Castle, the John A. Casey trainee who lost for the first time in three career starts.

Bright Dawn now has two wins and over $61,000 in earnings from three career starts. The undefeated Muad’dib, a Jeff Runco trainee who figured to take plenty of betting action, was a stewards’ scratch, as was Dan the Man Can.

While Bright Dawn took the stalk-and-pounce route to victory in the Coin Collector, Twirling Owen simply showed ’em her heels Friday night in the It’s Binn Too Long.

Under jockey J. D. Acosta — a pretty good weekend for him with two stakes wins — Twirling Owen was never challenged, opening up a 3 1/2-length lead after an opening quarter-mile in a sharp 21.84 seconds, stretching the lead to five lengths, and cruising home just shy of two clear in 52.35 seconds for the same 4 1/2-furlong trip.

Manarola held second, while 1.90-1 favorite Boundtobebad, winner of two prior stakes, was along for third, three lengths behind Manarola.

Twirling Owen, a homebred for Jim Miller, is trained by Anthony Farrior and now has four wins from eight starts with earnings in excess of $107,000. She’s also won three of her four career starts at Charles Town, whose 4 1/2-furlong distance is an ideal fit for her style. She paid $10 to win as the 4-1 fourth choice in the field of nine.

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