Devon Dat Cash edged Vodka With Ice by a head as 17-to-1 long shots finished first and second Sunday in the $63,810 Bank of America Emerald Downs Challenge Championship for older Quarter Horses.
Ridden by Luis Torres at 124 lbs, Devon Dat Cash ran 440 yards in :21.82 seconds and paid $36.60, $17.20 and $9.20. The victory in Emerald Downs’ richest Quarter Horse race qualified Devon Dat Cash for the $350,000 Bank of America Championship Final on Oct. 29 at Los Alamitos Racecourse.
Owned and bred by Donald and Beverly Conway of Rainier, Wash., 6-year-old Devon Dat Cash earned $29,063, and is 10-6-8 in 28 lifetime starts.
Vodka With Ice, ridden by Santos Carrizales at 125 lbs, dueled with the winner from start to finish, but was a head short at the wire. Vodka With Ice paid $15.20 and $7.60.
A photo finish was required as Devon Dat Cash, in post –position 10, and Vodka With Ice, in post-position 1, raced on the outer and inner parts of the racing strip.
“I wasn’t sure if he won at the wire,” Torres said. “When I came back, the crowd was cheering, and I knew I had won it. He’s a really nice horse.”
Devon Dat Cash won at the 440-yard distance despite the fact he hadn’t raced since a Jan. 24 victory at Portland Meadows.
“It’s been a long time since he ran, so I didn’t know if he’d be able to go 440 yards,” Torres said. “He broke really well, but then he started to lug in a little bit. I switched sticks and he started to run straight again. He’s the kind of horse that you have to stay busy on.”
Vodka With Ice, competing primarily in Texas this year, fired a big shot and just missed. Also a 6-year-old, Vodka With Ice finished a head of A Royal Dervish, while even-money betting favorite Simons Wonder Choice was bumped on both sides at the break, and struggled home seventh.
A Royal Dervish, the 3-to-1 second choice ridden by Jeff Jerman, paid $4.60. The top three finishers were all 6-year-olds.
NOTES: Winning Machine ($4.60) won the $21,000 allowance feature for Thoroughbreds in a meet-fastest 1:40.88 for 1-1/16 miles to give jockey Leslie Mawing his fifth win of the day. Mawing finished the day 5-0-0 in seven mounts, and became the first Emerald Downs jockey to win five races since Ricky Frazier on July 18, 2010. Mawing has 10 wins in three days this week and at least one win on 14 straight cards…Mawing’s second win Sunday was aboard First Last Chance ($7.80) in the fourth race as trainer John A. Holmes saddled his first winner of the meet…Mawing later scored back-to-back wins on Larry Ross trainees Stellakat ($7) and Old Song Lady ($14.40)…Although they finished off-the-board with even-money favorite Simons Wonder Choice in the big one, jockey Carlos Huerta and trainer Valentin Zamudio combined to win the 10th race—the $15,000 Pfizer Emerald Starter Allowance Challenge—with 4-to-5 favorite Snow Patrol. The 6-year-old gelding nearly blew a big lead after shying from a shadow in the final yards…In the seventh race, apprentice jockey Elizka Kubinova—who finished sixth in her first American mount Saturday—guided 35-to-1 long shot Solex Sisters to a second place finish behind Pete’s Glory Girl ($16)…Jose Zunino was given a two-day suspension (Sept. 10-11) for causing interference aboard Untilifindyou in Friday’s sixth race. Untilifindyou finished third but was placed fourth…Live racing continues Monday with a 10-race holiday program at 2:15 p.m. After Monday, only nine days remain in the 2011 meeting…Del Mar has a Pick Six carryover of $273,832 on Monday’s races.
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