LASTCHANCEFORLOVE OVERSHADOWS TWO HEAVY FAVORITES IN OPEN ALLOWANCE RACE AT REMINGTON PARK

Most of the attention was given to Optionality and Sunday Flashback in the featured open allowance race for 3-year-old fillies Saturday night at Remington Park, but Lastchanceforlove outshone them both with a mild upset win.

Optionality and Sunday Flashback were 7-5 and 3-2 in the morning line as the heavy favorites while Lastchanceforlove quietly moved from her 6-1 odds down to 7-2 at post-time. That smart money turned out to be just that as Optionality ran dead last in the field of eight, Sunday Flashback could only manage a fourth-place finish and Lastchanceforlove hit the wire in the spotlight.

Optionality went off as the post-time 8-5 betting favorite but faded from fifth halfway through the race to run eighth. She had won her only start at Remington Park last year when she won the $100,000 Trapeze Stakes by 8-1/4 lengths against the best 2-year-old fillies here. Sunday Flashback had not raced since Dec. 17 when she won her fifth race in a row at Remington Park. She didn’t get much action on the tote-board, however, as her 3-2 odds floated up to 5-2 as the field broke from the gate.

Lastchanceforlove had not run first or second in three starts at Remington Park and was soundly defeated in the $50,000 Flashy Lady Stakes in Oklahoma City last year, running third, beaten seven lengths. It appears this 5-year-old mare by Violence, out of the Awesome Again mare Awe Hush, has figured it out as she has aged. She won her second open allowance in a row by five lengths or more. Lastchanceforlove won at Lone Star Park by five on June 10 in Grand Prairie, Texas, her last race before tonight’s impressive effort under jockey David Cabrera. The win was the second of the night for Remington Park’s four-time defending champion rider. That gave him seven wins for this meet, one short of the two jockeys tied for the top – Weston Hamilton and Cristian Torres with eight each.

Lastchanceforlove again drew away like she had no competition, winning tonight by 5-1/4 lengths, covering six furlongs on a fast main track in 1:10.07. She virtually won wire-to-wire, only losing the lead for a short period of time to second-place finisher Take Charge Woman (25-1) after a half mile. Take Charge Woman was another three-quarters of a length ahead of Dicey (8-1) in third. Sunday Flashback finished fourth, a head back of Dicey.

The most amazing thing might be that Lastchanceforlove ran fifth, beaten 19-1/2 lengths in a one-mile race at Lone Star on May 8 in open allowance company in a race where Optionality finished second, beaten only a nose.

The front-runners set early fractions of :22.49 for a quarter-mile, :45.65 for the half-mile, and :57.73 after five-eighths of a mile. Lastchanceforlove is trained by Bret Calhoun and owned by Wayne Sanders and Larry Hirsch of Dallas, Texas. She was bred in Kentucky by White Fox Farm. She paid $9.40 to win, $6.40 to place and $4.40 to show. Take Charge Woman returned $24.40 to place and $13.60 to show. The 1-4 exacta was worth $178.40 on a $2 play.

Lastchanceforlove earned $23,847 from the $41,800 purse and improved her career record to 14 starts, five wins, one second and two thirds for $136,860 in earnings.

Live racing at Remington Park continues next week with the racing schedule changing to Wednesday-Saturday, Sept. 7-10. The nightly first race is 7:07pm-Central.

Tracked by more than 171,000 fans on Facebook and 10,600 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $298 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park features the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby and Grade 3 Remington Park Oaks on Sunday, September 25. Thoroughbred racing continues through December 17 with simulcast racing daily, and a casino that is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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