Balooga Bull wins his 2014 debut at the Downs. Paul Nolan up.
by George
Reigning Champion Older Horse Balooga Bull made his 2014 debut a winning one, jockey Paul Nolan and trainer Ardell Sayler each scored a hat trick, and the Pick-4 pool swelled to over $23,000 with the help of a carryover on beautiful Friday night at the Downs.
Jockey Paul Nolan won the first two races with Timeless Storm ($8.40) and Swiss Ski ($3.70) before wiring his three rivals aboard Balooga Bull in the third race for the natural hat trick.
The “Bull” opened up early and set fractions of 23.60, 46.80 and 58.20 before stopping the timer in a good 1:04.20 for the 5 1/2-furlongs over a fast track. The final margin of victory was 5 1/2-lengths and he looked like he had something left in the tank.
Trainer Ardell Sayler was the trainer of Timeless Storm and Balooga Bull, and completed his hat trick in the seventh and final race with Denton ($7.90), Christopher Ho Up.
The triple helped Sayler increase his lead in the trainer standings to 20-6 over Rob Atras, with Jim Meyaard one more win back with five. Both Atras and Meyaard are scoring at a 50% clip and have to be included on your tickets, no matter what the form on their horses looks like.
Jockey Tyrone Nelson won his first race of the season for trainer Murray Duncan aboard Barrio Baby ($6.80) in the fifth race, and Jennifer Reid won her first of the year aboard Silver Meeting ($5.10) for trainer Jack Robertson in the sixth race.
The Pick-4 races 4-7 were won by either favorites or second choices that paid $3.90, $6.80, $5.10 and $7.90, but the $2 Pick-4 still paid a decent $302.70 and made a lot of people happy based on the large pool.
Even more lucrative and surprising were the large $2 Superfecta payoffs of $1780.30 in the first race and $1931.40 in the sixth race, both of which were won by short-priced horses. The aforementioned Timeless Storm paid $8.40 winning the first race and Silver Meeting paid only $5.10 when he won the sixth.
Money everywhere 🙂
Next Post Time for Live Racing: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 24, 2014