Central takes Churchill Downs to the 'bank'

Central Banker continued to stalk the pace, challenged the leader at the top

of the stretch and gained command. On his outside eventual runner-up Shakin It

Up was breathing down his neck, drawing almost even in midstretch. Those two

battled to the wire, but Central Banker dug in late to get up by a head. 

The four-year-old colt covered seven furlongs over the fast main track in

1:21. He banked $270,886 for the victory and increased his lifetime earnings to

$590,786 from a 12-4-3-2 career line.

"Al said to warm him up anyway I wanted and that he's a horse I could do

anything with so I said, 'OK, let's go get the money,'" Nakatani said. "He's a

horse that runs better when he has a target and I was able to tuck him in there.

When the horse Mike (Smith on Shakin It Up) was on came at him, he re-broke and

was all racehorse from there. He made me look good."

Shakin It Up had to settle for second, while it was 1 3/4 lengths back to

Clearly Now in third. Broadway Empire, Delaunay, Capo Bastone, 5-2 favorite

Sahara Sky, Laugh Track, Quiet Force, Falling Sky and River Bear rounded out the

order of finish.

"He really dug in but I could never catch the winner," said jocky Mike Smith,

rider of runner-up Shakin It Up. "I just couldn't catch a break. He ran really

good, the winner just ran a nose better."

Central Banker broke his maiden on the grass at Saratoga in August of his

two-year-old campaign after running third over the dirt in his racing bow

earlier in the month. He stayed on the turf and finished second the following

month in his stakes debut in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile. The bay returned to

the dirt his next time out and scored in an allowance over this track. He closed

out 2012 with a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Delta Downs Jackpot.

The son of Speightstown did not kick off his three-year-old season until July

and returned to the course where he broke his maiden, capturing his first stakes

in the Quick Call. Central Banker finished up the remainder of the year with a

third-place finish in the Kings Bishop and was runner-up in both the Thanksgiving

Handicap and Malibu Stakes. He was exiting a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1

Carter Handicap at Aqueduct in April in his first start of 2014.

Bred in Kentucky by Windstar Farm, Central Banker is out of the multiple

stakes winning Go for Gin mare Rhum, who is a half-sister to Grade 2 scorer

Private Emblem. The bay is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Gantry. His female

female also includes multiple stakes victress Red Cross.

Central Banker sold as a yearling for $200,000 at the Keeneland September

sale.

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