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War of Aces, a four-year-old gelding familiar with big winds, defeated nine opponents on a windy day at Fonner Park to capture the feature race of the day.
"The night before we ran him at Turfway Park in January, a tornado hit our training facility, and the wind blew the roof right off our barn," said trainer Steve Larue.
"We thought he'd run big that day, but he was still just scared to death and didn't run at all that next day," Larue said.
War of Aces luck didn't get any better his next time out at Beulah Park in Ohio.
"He got slammed at the break in that race and lost all chance right away," Larue said. "The jockey (Marco Ccamaque) came back and told me as bad as he was feeling from the colllision, the horse had to be worse off, he wanted to ride him next time out."
Next time out, however, was last week at Fonner, where War Of Aces won by six lengths for Larue and rider Yuri Yaranga. Yaranga was back in the saddle Friday for another score on Larue's gelding.
Watching the replay of the race, Larue was very complimentary on Yaranga's ride.
"He had a lot of horse on the backstretch, but nowhere to go," Larue said. "Yuri really rode wel. When he got a hole on the turn, he went through it and just took off."
Yaranga held off a strong bid by Counselor's Play under Beth Butler to post a one-length win in 1:14:20 on a fast track.
War of Aces sent postward as the favorite returned $4.20 to win with an exacta payoff of $11.20.
Larue's stable has been hot since venturing to his new surroundings and has high hopes for War of Aces.
"We'll keep going up the conditions ladder with him, we'll look for a non-winners of four lifetime for him next," Larue said.
Hoofprints
* Yaranga won three races on the day as he scored with Noble Reward in the third and Old Indian Trick in the fourth along with War of Aces.
* Mike Kirby and Larren Delorme teamed up to win two races as the pair won with Blumin Won in the second and Nicandro in the seventh race.
* Two big longshots won on the day as Don Frazier guided ShaniaSuperSunday to victory in race one and returned $40.40 for the win. Lee Sensenbach won the eighth race in wire-to-wire fashion on longshot Lawson's Miracle who returned $32.20 to win.
* Kentucky Derby favorite War Pass runs today in the $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby.
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