Gantry prevails in Thanksgiving
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Brittlyn Stable's Gantry repulsed a challenge from Mico Margarita and held the closing Central Banker safe by a neck in Thursday's $97,000 Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds, winning the Fair Grounds feature for the second time in three years. The Ron Faucheux-trained gelding finished second last year to Delaunay and benefited when that rival had to be withdrawn due to a fever. Gantry showed the way as the 1-2 favorite under Richard Eramia, completing the opening quarter-mile in :22 4/5 with a one-length advantage. His lead had shrunk to only a head after four furlongs in :46 1/5, with Mico Margarita offering a stiff challenge leaving the far turn, and Gantry responded to the urgings from his rider to put away his rival with less than a furlong remaining. Central Banker, a half-brother to Gantry, finished up strongly to pose a threat in deep stretch, but the wire came in time for the winner, who finished six furlongs in 1:10 1/5 on the fast track.
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"He really doesn't want the lead, he just kind of inherited it," Faucheux
said. "He really needs a target to run at."
"He's a very nice horse," Eramia added, "but he can run better than he did
today."
Central Banker wound up 5 3/4 lengths clear of Mico Margarita at the wire,
and Strong and Tough trailed in the four-horse field. Foreign Production
scratched along with Delaunay.
Gantry swept the Thanksgiving, F.W. Gaudlin Memorial and Duncan F. Kenner two
meets ago and finished second to Delaunay in the same events at the New Orleans
track last season. He also captured the Grade 2 Smile Sprint at Calder in 2012
and the September 7 Temperence Hill at Louisiana Downs in his most recent
outing. With the $60,000 payday, the six-year-old has now earned $768,245 from a
21-9-5-3 ledger.
Bred in Kentucky by D.J. Stable, Gantry is by Oulpit and out of the
stakes-winning Go for Gin mare Rhum, a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Private
Emblem. Besides the stakes-winning Central Banker, Gantry counts multiple
stakes-placed Song of Pirates as a half-brother.
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