Summer claim Two Rivers Over (13-1) upsets Zia Park Derby
Former turf and synthetic specialist Two Rivers Over (13-1) stalked the pace early, put a nose in front on the backstretch and ran on to what was reported to be a track-record time Tuesday in winning the $300,000 Zia Park Derby, a listed stakes on the dirt in New Mexico.
Claimed this summer for $30,000 by Todd Cady and Ty Leatherman, the Tamarkuz gelding trained by Doug O’Neill was ridden by top local rider Luis Fuentes, who substituted for the originally assigned, California-based jockey Antonio Fresu.
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Starting from post 6 in the field of seven 3-year-olds, Fuentes settled Two Rivers Over three wide into third place going into the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile race. No White Flags (9-1), who eventually finished last, led for the first half-mile with Wildatlanticstorm (7-1) no more than two lengths behind in second.
No White Flags and Two Rivers Over raced head to head going into the second turn, where the eventual winner put a nose in front just past the three-eighths pole.
Allowance victor Heroic Move (2-1) and West Virginia Derby (G3) winner Red Route One (2-1), who was the favorite by $264 in the $82,781 win pool, both came from the back of the pack and took up the challenge in the stretch. However, they were no match for Two Rivers Over, who responded to Fuentes’s left-handed urging to open up and win by two lengths.
Heroic Move was second, 1 1/4 lengths better than third-place Red Route One. Wildatlanticstorm was another 2 1/2 lengths back in fourth. Battle Strike (53-1), Slip Mahoney (5-2) and No White Flags finished fifth through seventh in that order. Potential pacesetter Arrowthegreat was scratched after racing two days earlier in California.
Two Rivers Over returned $29.40, $13.80 and $5.40; Heroic Move $3.80 and $2.80; and Red Route One $2.20.
Two Rivers Over was credited with a hand-timed 1:41.25 over the fast, main track after the toteboard had displayed an obviously wrong 2:16.98. No fractional times were shown on the Equibase chart. The old track record was 1:41.80 set by Alert Bay in winning the 2014 Zia Park Derby.
It was the fourth consecutive dirt-track win for Two Rivers Over, who was bred by Chester Thomas’s Allied Racing Stable in Kentucky. Thomas had him in for a tag this summer at Ellis Park, where he broke his maiden on his ninth try but in only his second race on dirt.
Since being moved west to O’Neill, Two Rivers Over is 5: 4-0-0. Tuesday’s $176,400 first prize raised his earnings to $313,851 from a career record of 13: 4-0-5. He is 5: 4-0-0 on dirt, 5: 0-0-3 on turf and 3: 0-0-3 on synthetic.