RESIDENCY RACES SUCCESSFUL AT PHILADELPHIA PARK

The 4TH Running of the South Carolina Residency Races were held at Philadelphia Park on Sunday Nov 16th.  The Christopher Elser Memorial was won by ElkstoneGroup’s Not Up For Love when the colt went by runner up St John’s Gospel in the final eighth to win by 1 ½ lengths.  The winning trainer was Karin Wagner.  Not Up for Love was trained in South Carolina by Donna Freyer at Custom Care Equine and St. John’s Gospel was broken at Franklin Smith’s Elloree Training Center.  Diane Goss’s Count for Gold(Trained in SC by Doris Rabon’s Glenview Farm) ran third with Roaring Storm (Webb Carroll Training Center), Keep Me in Mind(Kirkwood Stables), Tecate (Elloree Training Center), Opening Statement (Elloree Training Center), and Dixie Request (Glenview Farm) completing the order of finish.

The Donna Freyer was an exciting finish with Diane Harrington’s Oh So Clever beating John Ferris and Mike Presley’s Payton d’Oro by a short head after the two fillies battled down to the wire. Both fillies were trained by Larry Jones; Oh So Clever was trained in SC by Wes Carter while Payton d’Oro was broken at the Webb Carroll Training Center.  Candy Stable’s Star of Taurus (Custom Care) was third with Lil Champ (McCutchen Training Center), Subprime Slime (Custom Care Equine),and Yankees in Seven (Shuler Training Center) rounding out the order of finish.

The 2009 versions of the South Carolina Residency Races will be held at Philadelphia Park in the fall.  A link for a nomination form is here on the homepage of the SCTOBA.  The races are open to those two year olds of 2009 that have spent 90 days in SC by June 30,2009.  The early bird nomination is $100 to be paid by January 15, 2009 or the regular nomination fee is $200 to be paid by June 30, 2009.