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Black Seventeen runs to the nines in Vosburgh Wind River Stables et al's BLACK SEVENTEEN (Is It True), the longest shot in the field at nearly 24-1, prevailed in a stretch long duel with Fabulous Strike (Smart Strike) in Saturday's $400,000 Vosburgh S. (G1) and possibly put himself into contention for next month's Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) with a head victory in a time of 1:09 3/5 over a sloppy, sealed track at Belmont Park. Under Clinton Potts, Black Seventeen tracked in fourth early while Fabulous Strike led through fractions of :21 3/5 and :44 1/5 while under steady pressure from J Be K (Silver Deputy). After that rival dropped back, Black Seventeen, who was five-wide down the backstretch, moved up to engage the longtime leader and gradually wore down the near 5-2 second choice for the laurels. Black Seventeen paid $49.60, $14 and $7.10 while keying exotics of $219 (exacta), $1,311 (trifecta) and $4,012 superfecta (7-1-5-6). Fabulous Strike, making only his second start since his victory in the Vosburgh last year, returned $4.70 and $3.30. Kodiak Kowboy (Posse), who made a good-looking outside rally to reach contention only to flatten out late, brought back $4.50 at 8-1. Rockerfeller (Maria's Mon) finished five lengths farther back in fourth and was followed under the line by J Be K, 2-1 favorite Lucky Island (Arg) (Lucky Roberto) and First Defence (Unbridled's Song). "That was a long way to come to be 23-1, but this horse has won on this kind of a racetrack," winning co-owner and trainer Brian Koriner said. "We raced here instead of California today (in the Ancient Title S. [G1] at Santa Anita) because they have a new synthetic and I didn't want to have to guess what it would be like." Fabulous Strike, whose only previous start this year was a victory in a three-horse Vincent A. Moscarelli Memorial S. on June 21, was very game in defeat despite encountering some trouble before coming out onto the track." "He ripped his shoe off the paddock and bent his shoe up," trainer Todd Beattie explained. "He had to run with a shoe that was sprung on him the whole way. I thought that, considering that, it was a considerably good effort. It surely looked like he gave me as much as he could. He could run over broken glass." The Vosburgh marked the first win for Black Seventeen since last year's Carry Back S. (G2) at Calder. He was off more than 11 months following that score, finishing second in the Oakland S. in his seasonal bow before running fifth in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. (G2). He went down by three-quarters of a length in his most recent start, a second-place finish in the Pirate's Bounty H. at Del Mar. Black Seventeen has now bankrolled $536,077 from a line of 10-4-2-1. The winner was bred by Marilyn Lewis, Robert Smith and Saronda Smith, and brought the gavel down at $150,000 at the 2006 OBS February Two-Year-Olds in Training sale. He was produced from Fuzzy Navel (Strike the Anvil) and has an unnamed yearling half-sister by Proud Accolade.
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