Balance the Books Wins Rough Renewal of Bourbon

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Balance the Books overcame a bad start to edge Really Sharp by a nose in the 22nd running of the $150,000 Bourbon (G3) to earn a berth in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) to be run on November 3 at Santa Anita.

Ridden by Julien Leparoux and trained by Chad Brown, Balance the Books broke last in the field of 12 as longshots Road Agent and Really Sharp contested the lead. Really Sharp, ridden by Elvis Trujillo, led the field into the stretch but at the eighth pole ducked out and interfered with several horses and was disqualified to sixth.

Brown Almighty, who finished 1½ lengths in back of Really Sharp, was elevated to second and Sonofasamurai, who finished another two lengths back, was moved up to third from fourth.

Balance the Books, purchased by Klaravich Stables at Keeneland’s 2012 April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, returned $3.80, $2.80 and $2.40. Brown Almighty, ridden by Francisco Torres, paid $4.60 and $3.40 with Sonofasamurai, ridden by David Cohen, returning $4.40 to show.

Following the top three officially in order were Summit County, Strike the Note, Really Sharp, Fredericksburg, Roman’s Avenue, Ruler of Love, Slamarama, Army Hero and Road Agent.

The victory was worth $90,000 to Balance the Books and increased his career earnings to $227,000 with a record of 3-2-1-0. It was the second graded stakes victory of Fall Stars Weekend for Klaravich Stables and Lawrence as their Sum of the Parts won the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G3) on Friday.

Balance the Books, a Kentucky-bred son of Lemon Drop Kid out of the Seeking the Gold mare Kreisleriana, covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:45.15.