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'The Shirt' notches second Colonial Cup, Eclipse Award GOOD NIGHT SHIRT (Concern) completed a perfect season with a gutsy victory in the $150,000 Colonial Cup (NSA-G1) at Springdale Race Course in Camden, South Carolina, on Sunday, running down Preemptive Strike (Roanoke) in deep stretch to score by a neck. Owned by Sonny Via and trained by Jack Fisher, the winner jumped the last fence a length behind the front-running Preemptive Strike, but rallied in the final yards to prevail in a slugfest. Best Attack (Bahri) finished 6 1/2 lengths back in third after 2 3/4 miles in 5:17 4/5. Willie Dowling rode the winner, who completed 2008 with five wins in as many starts, all in Grade 1 stakes. The seven-year-old started his year with a win in the Georgia Cup at Atlanta in April and made that success stand up all year -- winning the Iroquois at Nashville in May, the Lonesome Glory at Belmont Park in September, and the Grand National at Far Hills in October. He concluded his campaign with a repeat victory in the Colonial Cup. Not that it was easy. "Preemptive Strike really took it to me," Dowling said. "Today proves that he's a fighter, too, when they throw it to him. It's a long run from that last fence, but I was glad to have that today. I'm so happy for the horse that he finished on a good note. He deserved to do it. Everybody wants to see a race and they saw a race today -- and the champ won." Good Night Shirt completed the perfect season and earned $90,000 to push his already record seasonal total to $485,520. In winning five of the seven unrestricted Grade 1 stakes on the American steeplechase calendar, Good Night Shirt pushed his career steeplechase earnings to $934,493, third best all time behind McDynamo and Lonesome Glory, who combined to win eight Eclipse Awards as champion steeplechaser. Already odds-on to repeat as the Eclipse Award winner this year, Good Night Shirt left no doubt Sunday. "It means everything to us," Via said afterward. "You go from one race to the next being nervous about him. It's not about us, although we love being a part of it. Just seeing him do his thing is so special. He really had to dig in today."
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