Pants On Fire Leads Wild & Wonderful Entrants
George and Lori Hall’s multiple graded stakes winner Pants On Fire looks for his first victory in over a year as he headlines Saturday night’s $100,000 Wild & Wonderful on Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races’ sixth annual Race for the Ribbon program. The seven furlong Wild & Wonderful will be contested as the first of the evening’s three six-figure stakes races.
After consecutive victories in last year’s Monmouth Cup (G2) and Ack Ack (G3), the now six-year-old son of Jump Start appeared poised to make an impact in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile but, after being sent off at odds of 8.30 to 1, had to endure a wide trip and could do no better than seventh, beaten 12 lengths by eventual winner Goldencents. After a trip to Japan for the lucrative Japan Cup Dirt, trainer Kelly Breen kept the 2011 Louisiana Derby (G2) winner on the sidelines for nearly nine months before returning him to the races in the Monmouth Cup on July 27. A third place finish in his effort to defend his Monmouth Cup crown was followed by a pair of narrow defeats in the Phillip Iselin Handicap (G3) and Left Bank at Belmont Park.
Pants on Fire will be making his second start at Charles Town, having finished sixth in the 2012 Charles Town Classic and will have the services of jockey Paco Lopez in the Wild & Wonderful.
While Pants On Fire stands as the 5-to-2 morning line favorite, his main competition appears to come from the rail in the form of Thomas Shank and Stand Young’s Good Lord. In addition to winning three of his last four starts, all the Forrest Kaelin trainee did in his last trip to Charles Town was win the 2012 Wild & Wonderful over eventual graded stakes winner Bandbox in a track record time that still stands. In his last start at Remington Park, the seven-year-old gelding turned in a dull performance, finishing sixth as the 1.70-to-1 favorite in the David M. Vance Stakes.
The 124 pound highweight, Great Lord is scheduled to be ridden by Javier Castellano.
The field is rounded out by Handsup Moneydown, a winner of three of his last four outings, The Camden Comet, Lovmeister, the Alan Goldberg trained Mezzano and a pair from the Damon Dilodovico barn in Warrioroftheroses and Smash and Grag.
Post time for the first race on Saturday’s Race for the Ribbon card is 5:00pm EST, with the Wild & Wonderful slated to go off at 9:13pm.
$100,000 WILD & WONDERFUL S.
September 20, 2014
Race 9 – Post time 9:13pm EST
3&up, 7 Furlongs
PP. Horse, Jockey, Weight, Trainer
1. Good Lord, Javier Castellano, 124, Forrest Kaelin
2. Warrioroftheroses, Xavier Perez, 121, Damon R. Dilodovico
3. Handsup Moneydown, J.D. Acosta, 121, Ramon Preciado
4. The Camden Comet, Jose Montano, 121, Charles L. Frock
5. Lovemeister, Kendrick Carmouche, 121, Wayne Potts
6. Smash and Grab, Travis L. Dunkelberger, 123, Damon R. Dilodovico
7. Mezzano, Julian Pimentel, 123, Mezzano
8. Pants On Fire, Paco Lopez, 121, Kelly J. Breen
Source: Charles Town Races