TRAINER KARI CRADDOCK CONTINUES HER FIERY RUN AS KHOLA WINS TURF ALLOWANCE FEATURE AT 26-1 ODDS

All Khola had done coming into Saturday night’s featured turf allowance at Remington Park was win two of his last three turf races; he and Craddock continued their winning ways, taking the allowance turf feature to extend their run to three of the last four over the lawn.

The strangest part of the victory was that the betting public let Khola go off at 26-1 odds. He paid $54.60 to win, $23.40 to place and $10 to show across the board. Craddock has almost been as hot as the horse. For this meet, she has started horses 30 times with 11 wins for an incredible 37 percent victory mark. The next closest trainer with at least 15 starters is Jesse Oberlander at 28 percent.

Craddock is tied for third in the trainers’ standings, locked in with Scott Young. They are behind Steve Asmussen at 17 wins and Karl Broberg with 12. Danny Pish is fifth with nine wins.

Craddock starters have run first, second or third 63 percent of the time this season. In the money-earned category, she sits fourth behind some heavy hitters this meet. Steve Asmussen, the leading trainer in the country, also leads the way here with $535,533 earned, followed by Karl Broberg, second-leading trainer in the country in wins. Broberg’s horses have earned $448,194. Brad Cox, the country’s second-leading trainer in money earned, has banked $357,000. Craddock checks in fourth with $258,724.

Khola won a 1-1/16th mile race greensward at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, on June 4 against $30,000 claiming non-winners of two lifetime. He won at 7-1/2 furlongs on the lawn at Remington Park on Sept. 3 in his fall debut here and then followed that with Saturday night’s win at 1-1/16th miles. The only race he lost in his last four was a 1-1/16 race at Lone Star on June 26.

Leandro Goncalves made an impressive move inside to save ground and pass the front-runners down the stretch aboard Khola. In an 11-horse field, Goncalves waited patiently in eighth down the backstretch. He was still seventh after three-quarters of a mile and moved into fourth at the top of the stretch. Goncalves engaged the rockets at that point and passed them all to win by 1-1/2 lengths. His winning time was 1:46 over the course labeled good. He cut into fractions of :23.87 for the first quarter-mile, :48.62 for the half-mile, 1:13.54 for 6 furlongs and 1:39.72 for the mile.

Khola, a 4-year-old gelded son of Pollard’s Vision, out of the Election Day (IRE) mare Buena Fortuna (MEX), earned $23,919 from the purse of $37,825. The gelding improved his career record to 19 starts, four wins, two seconds and two thirds for $107,139. He is owned by none other than Craddock Racing of Brookings, S.D. Craddock also bred the horse in Oklahoma.

Old Sot (18-1) ran second, one length ahead of third-place finisher Tillis (14-1). With three horses at boxcar odds completing the trifecta, that 50-cent wager paid $1,772.90. The 10-cent superfecta with Sierra Hotel (4-1) getting fourth was worth $1,023.71.

Racing continues next week with a Wednesday-Saturday, Oct. 6-9, schedule set. First post time is 7:07pm-Central each night.

Tracked by more than 167,000 fans on Facebook and 10,400 Twitter followers, Remington Park has provided more than $272 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 is home for the $1,000,000 Oklahoma Classics Night, an evening of stakes racing to celebrate Oklahoma-breds, on Friday, Oct. 15. Simulcast horse racing featured daily, the casino is always open! Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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