Stakes Replay

 

 

Spice Route (GB) won the $200,000, Grade 2 Fifth Third Elkhorn Stakes Friday at Keeneland, upsetting heavily favored Champs Elysees (GB) and spoiling the 10-year-old debut of multi-millionaire Better Talk Now.

 

The 5-year-old son of King’s Best took the lead with an eighth of a mile remaining in the 1 1/2-mile turf race under Rene Douglas en route to a two-length victory.  Time for the race on the firm turf was 2:29.23.

 

Mr. (trainer Roger) Attfield told me to wait as long as I could because he (Spice Route) likes to wait for horses, so that was my main thing,” said Douglas.  “I didn’t want to get the lead early and coming into the eighth pole it seemed like he was getting the lead and I didn’t want to get the lead.  From the eighth pole home, I just decided to let him go and he responded very well.”

 

Musketier (GER) finished second to give Attfield a one-two finish in the race.  It was a neck back to third-place Brass Hat, one of three millionaires in the field.

 

Better Talk Now brought 14 wins and $4.2 million in earnings into the Fifth Third Elkhorn and finished sixth in his first start since October.

 

“(Jockey) Ramon (Dominguez) was very happy with him, and you’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt,” said trainer Graham Motion.  “He probably needed a race.” 

 

Champs Elysees, a multiple Grade 1 winner and 3-2 favorite in the 12-horse field, finished seventh.

 

Spice Route races for the partnership of Harlequin Ranches, Ralph Johnson and Attfield.  He won for the fifth time in 19 career starts and increased his lifetime earnings to $721,854.

 

The winner paid $10.20 as the second choice in the betting.