Sent off at 13-1, Peekacho made his first black-type start a winning one, holding off Royal Mesa by a neck to upset the $75,000 Prairie Bayou Stakes Tuesday at Turfway Park. Guest Suite was another four lengths back in third. Final time for the 1 1/16-mile race over Polytrack for horses 3 years old and up was 1:45.49.
Breaking from post eight in the field of 10, jockey John McKee settled Peekacho off the pace and had all the horse he needed when it counted.
“I had a great trip. All the credit goes to his trainer [Brian Michael],” said McKee. “I really was just a passenger. We had the pace in front of us and when I called on him at the top of the lane he gave me another couple gears that I needed. It was really fun to be a part of it. He felt [Royal Mesa coming] and kind of took off again. He wasn’t going to let him by.”
Hard to Be Good took the early lead, setting fractions of :23.56 and :47.49 before ceding to Driven to Compete, who set the three-quarter mark in 1:12.64 but couldn’t sustain the bid. Peekacho took over heading into the stretch and just held off Royal Mesa, who chased the winner throughout the race.
At 13-1, Peekacho paid $28, $10.40 and $5.60 for his milestone win.
Louder Than Bombs completed the superfecta, followed by Memory Bank, Patriot Drive, Chief Oakie Dokie, Driven to Compete, favored Big Dollar Bill and Hard to Be Good. Blueridge Traveler and Dabo were scratched by their trainers. Antrim’s Giant did not draw in and was scratched. Flowerpecker dropped his jockey in parade, ran off and was scratched by the stewards.
Peekacho is a 4-year-old gelded son of 2009 Lane’s End Stakes (G2) winner Hold Me Back out of Pioneering Cat, by Pioneering. Tuesday’s stakes win improved his record to 11 wins from 32 starts, with six seconds and six thirds and earnings of $227,413 for owner Andrew Ritter. Peekacho was bred in Kentucky by Ritter and Ledgelands LLC.
The win was the third on the day for McKee.
Turfway Park hosts live racing from late fall through early spring, maintaining the winter dates for Kentucky’s year round live racing circuit, and offers simulcast wagering year round. Turfway was the first track in North America to install the all-weather surface Polytrack for live racing and is home to the Jeff Ruby Steaks and the Bourbonette Oaks, qualifying races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, respectively.
Turfway Park