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Two capture major titles
By GARY WEST
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
GRAND PRAIRIE - Nobodywantmetilnow became a stakes winner, and Miss Mary Pat became a local champion Saturday at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie.
The penultimate day of the Lone Star season, as it turned out, settled all the local championships and probably the trainers' race, too.
After Miss Mary Pat won Saturday's $65,000 Silver Spur Stakes with a determined surge in the final yards, media representatives and track officials voted her the champion 2-year-old filly for the season that concludes today. And after Waupaca fell short Saturday in his attempt to become the season's only two-time stakes winner on the grass, the voters named Sweet Talker, winner of the WinStar Distaff, the season's champion turf horse.
Neither Bret Calhoun nor Cody Autrey had a winner on Saturday's program at Lone Star. And so going into the final day of racing, Calhoun is three wins behind Steve Asmussen, 55-52, in the trainers' race, and Autrey is third, with 50 victories.
Calhoun has entered four horses for today's program. And Autrey has entered horses in three races. Because of a suspension, Asmussen is inactive until January.
But it was Nobodywantmetilnow who insisted on being in the spotlight Saturday. Waupaca stalked a lively pace and shot clear at the top of the stretch, looking very much like the winner of the $40,000 Bob Johnson Memorial Stakes and even like a potential turf champion.
But then Nobodywantmetilnow, an improving 5-year-old gelding who was running in stakes company for only the second time in his career, ran down the stretch as though he had heard the dinner bell.
Three-to-four wide in the turn and even wider in the stretch, Nobodywatmetilnow surged to the front and won the Bob Johnson by a length, completing the mile over the turf in 1:34.90. Cajole rallied to finish second, a neck in front of Waupaca, who had won the Connecting Terms Stakes early in the season.
Owned by Mary and Arthur Bauer of Dallas, with Steve Robbins of Pilot Point, Nobodywantmetilnow ran the final quarter-mile in 23.85 seconds while winning for the fifth time in 14 starts. Ridden by Glen Murphy, Nobodywantmetilnow pushed his earnings to $106,360.
The Bob Johnson was his first start for his fifth trainer, Donnie Von Hemel. "He looks like he's going to be a very good horse for the region," Von Hemel said.
In the Silver Spur, Waterloo Slew sprinted to a clear advantage early, with Miss Mary Pat fourth after a half-mile in 45.29 seconds. But Quincy Hamilton swung Miss Mary Pat to the outside for the stretch drive, and they got up in the final yards to win by a half-length, completing the six furlongs in 1:11.43. Gallant Dreamer finished third, four lengths back.
The Silver Spur became the third victory for Miss Mary Pat in four starts, all at Lone Star. Saddled by Scott Blasi, Asmussen's longtime assistant who has assumed training duties for the stable, Miss Mary Pat had won her division of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity in her prior outing.
Owned by Corinne and Bill Heiligbrodt of Houston and Ro Parra of Austin, Miss Mary Pat has earned $101,598 in her brief career.
Record setter
When Cliff Berry won Saturday's sixth race with Thirteen Colonies, the jockey tied the Lone Star record of 102 victories in a season, originally set by Corey Lanerie in 1999, during a 73-day season. Berry has mounts in nine races today, the 66th and final day of the current season.
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