Wise River Takes Churchill Downs Turf Feature

Apr 26, 2009 Gary Yunt

Don Benge’s Wise River survived an early pace duel with Dubious Miss and then fended off a challenge from favored Inca King to win Sunday’s $56,640 allowance feature at Churchill Downs by 3 ¼ lengths.

In giving jockey Jamie Theriot his fourth victory of the afternoon, Wise River covered the 1 1/16 miles on a “firm” Matt Winn Turf Course in a course-record time of 1:39.83. The previous record was 1:40.70 set by Quite a Bride on June 6, 2007.

Wise River and Dubious Miss dueled through early fractions of :23.20 and :46.16 with Inca King tracking in third. Leaving the far turn after six furlongs in 1:09.32, Wise River began to inch clear of Dubious Miss and then kicked away from Inca King, who had been undefeated in three starts over the Matt Winn Course.

Wise River returned mutuels of $15.20, $6.80 and $4. Crested, who rallied for second under Jesus Castanon, returned $7.80 and $4.20. Inca King, who finished a nose back in third under Shaun Bridgmohan, returned $3 to show.

Trained by Clark Hanna, Wise River is a 6-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Belong to Me out of the Copelan mare Future Guest. The victory was worth $35,820 and increased his career earnings to $373,124 with his sixth win in 28 career starts.

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