Sassy Image gets up in Winning Colors

Meet-leading jockey Corey Lanerie hasn't made many mistakes this spring at Churchill Downs. But he thought he might have been a tad overconfident in riding odds-on favorite Sassy Image in Monday's $111,600 Winning Colors Stakes.

It didn't matter, as the 4-year-old Sassy Image closed from fifth to nail the gutsy pacesetter Beat the Blues in the final two strides for a neck victory in the Grade III stakes. The triumph gave Lanerie his third straight win on the holiday card and a 23-22 lead in the jockey standings over Shaun Bridgmohan.

“I thought I got up, but I tell you what, take nothing away from Beat the Blues,” Lanerie said. “She put in a game effort. It was a little short for my horse. I actually might have ridden her with too much confidence. I saw them going up there kind of fast, and I waited almost a little too long, thinking I had 'em where I wanted them. And that horse never stopped.”