Pay The Man won an early duel with Slides Choice in the $50,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial at Thistledown on Saturday, but couldn't seal the victory, losing by just a neck in a thrilling stretch run.
NORTH RANDALL, Ohio -- Pay The Man won an early duel with Slides Choice in the $50,000 Rose DeBartolo Memorial at Thistledown on Saturday, but couldn't seal the victory, losing by just a neck after the mares battled almost eye-to-eye in a thrilling stretch run.
Slides Choice had knocked off Pay The Man in last year's Best of Ohio Distaff, but had been having a rough season, failing to find the winner's circle in seven starts. Jockey Jason Lumpkins had her hanging tough on Saturday in the DeBartolo Memorial. He said in the winner's circle that his horse was overdue for a victory.
The 2009 Ohio Horse of the Year, Slides Choice is owned by Mary Crawford and Gerald Brown and trained by Timothy Hamm.
Slides Choice covered the 11/8-mile course in 1:51.2 to pay $4.60, 2.60, 2.10. Pay The Man returned $2.40 and 2.20; while Squeezer's Palace, two lengths back in third, paid $2.20.
Despite the narrow loss, it was a record-setting performance for Pay The Man, a six-year-old owned by the Pyrite Stables, trained by Angel Feliciano and ridden by Ricardo Feliciano. Earning $10,000 for the second-place finish, Pay The Man established a money-winning record for Ohio-bred mares, pushing her career total to $591,981. She has won 16 of 41 starts.
Ohio's 1989 Horse of the Year, Tougaloo owned the earnings mark for more than two decades after winning 13 of 31 career outings and $583,030.