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Late entry makes surprise run in Turf Cup
By GARY WEST
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
GRAND PRAIRIE - The best plan can sometimes be improvisation. Trainer Bruce Jackson hadn't planned on entering Trial By Jury in Lone Star Park's Dallas Turf Cup but did so at the last moment when he realized how shockingly indifferent many of his colleagues were to $200,000.
Only six horses were entered. And, as it turned out, the horse that almost wasn't entered won: Trial By Jury. He hadn't competed in a stakes race since May 2005, when he finished sixth in the Connecting Terms at Lone Star. Since then, he had won once in nine outings. And in March, he raced for a claiming price of $40,000 -- that is, he was for sale, and that was the price, with no takers. But Saturday, he earned $120,000.
Ridden by Alfredo Juarez Jr., Trial By Jury completed the 1 1/8 miles over the yielding turf course in 1 minute, 52.69 seconds, finishing a neck ahead of New Export, the 1-2 favorite, with Waupaca a length farther back in third.
Best known for training such major stakes winners as In Excess and Lord Smith, Jackson said Brego was the horse he had aimed at the Dallas Turf Cup, not Trial By Jury. Brego had run second in a trio of races in Southern California before traveling to Lone Star last month, always with Saturday's race as his goal.
But when New Export became the only other out-of-town horse to come here for the race, Jackson said he thought of Trail By Jury and at the last minute, as he described it, "tossed him in." And why not? Trial By Jury had won two of his three outings at Saturday's distance.
Still, he was 12-1 in the wagering, as most bettors focused on New Export. A major stakes winner in Brazil last year, New Export ran third for Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel in his U.S. debut, the Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park. So the Dallas Turf Cup seemed like a good place for him to discover a North American winner's circle.
He and Waupaca, with Brego in close attendance, led the field of six older horses through a dawdling half-mile in 50.72 seconds. And just as New Export inched away from Waupaca, Trial By Jury rallied from fifth, getting up in the final strides. Brego finished sixth.
"I was just riding the rail behind horses," Juarez said. "When I asked him [Trial By Jury] on the turn for home, I had to split horses, but he started rolling, and that was it."
Boots On Sunday
Boots On Sunday made a race of it for about a half-mile, but then he retreated to finish eighth in Saturday's $40,000 Carter McGregor Jr. Memorial Stakes at Lone Star. War Bridle, the winner, finished a head in front of Nuttyboom after running six furlongs in 1:10.50, with Rain On Monday third, 2 1/2 lengths back.
A multiple stakes winner of more than $400,000, Boots On Sunday was making his first start in almost four years. But he was so fresh and eager that he insisted on getting involved in fast, early fractions. After a half-mile in 44.71 seconds, Boots was third, just a length behind War Bridle.
For War Bridle, who was ridden by Quincy Hamilton and trained by Tommie Morgan, the victory was his fifth in 14 starts, and it improved his earnings to $159,035.
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