TUSCAN EVENING POWERS CLEAR TO TAKE LAS PALMAS HANDICAP

Article taken from The Thoroughbred Times

Grade 2 winner Tuscan Evening (OASIS DREAM) benefited from a well-timed ride by jockey Rafael Bejarano to score a comfortable win in the $200,000 Las Palmas Handicap (Gr.2) on Friday at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park.

The four-year-old OASIS DREAM (GB) filly took command in the early stretch and held off Grade 3 winner Closeout by 1¼ lengths in the final race on Oak Tree’s Friday card, which featured the first six races of the two-day Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

Tuscan Evening entered the one-mile Las Palmas off of a third-place finish in the 6½-furlong Senator Ken Maddy Handicap (Gr.3) on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course. Sent off as the 3.90-to-1 second betting choice in a full field of 14 fillies and mares, Tuscan Evening tracked in second behind 58.50-to-1 pacesetter Bahama Mama (Ire) through opening fractions of :23.08 and :47.23, followed by Zardana (Brz) and Cat by the Tale.

Upon Bejarano’s cue, Tuscan Evening rolled past Bahama Mama as the field entered the stretch and never was seriously challenged in the final stages, covering the mile in 1:33.50 on firm turf. Bejarano praised his filly’s versatility following the race.

“She ran really good today. She’s run well with me on the lead and she’s run well up close,” he said. “I think she’s going to improve a lot off this race. She showed me a big kick in the stretch and we had to run to hold off those other fillies, but I still had something left.”

Tuscan Evening (OASIS DREAM) improved her career record to six wins in 20 starts and earnings of $509,408. Bred in Ireland by Hascombe and Valiant Studs, she is out of the Group 3-placed winning Suave Dancer mare The Faraway Tree

Date: 07 November 2009