Catching My Eye at Colonial Downs Week 4

Jason looks back at some horses and races that caught his eye this past week at Colonial Downs. 

Week 4 is in the books as we now head toward our big Festival of Racing card this Saturday featuring the Arlington Million (G1) as the headliner here at Colonial Downs. 

If there’s one thing that really caught my eye this past week, it was the weather. Unfortunately the rain has been showing up a lot here recently, but more frustrating is that it’s been accompanied by lots of lightning. That and a power outage meant we lost parts of two cards last week. 

That didn’t leave me with a ton of races to catch my eye, but a few did and let’s talk about them! 

Reggie Runs Rogue

Earlier this season I mentioned Xavier Perez in this column. When he comes to Colonial, it’s usually worth paying attention to. Part of the reason I observed that was the one random time he showed up last year, it was for a first-time starter from the Justin Nixon barn. 

They teamed up again here with Reggie Runs Rogue last Friday. Set at 8-1 on the morning line, the two-year-old colt opened up low and stayed there, winning at 8-5. He traveled well throughout and swung off the rail at the top of the lane. The chestnut edged away steadily to win by a little more than two lengths, with another three lengths back to third. 

It was a very solid performance and clearly the horse has some ability. I wonder if we’ll see Reggie Runs Rogue again toward the end of the meet in the Virginia-certified stakes races. 

Winfinity

We had a pair of two year-old stakes Saturday and both resulted in horses winning in last-to-first fashion. We’ve talked about how the fractions and final times on dirt during this meet so far have been remarkably fast. That hasn’t necessarily meant that you had to be on the lead. Several horses were winning from stalking positions. 

But both these races were the first times that I remember horses coming from last to win on the main track this meet. And the final times this week definitely seemed to be slower than weeks prior. So maybe something to pay attention to for this coming week, especially if the rain has us on the dirt. 

But Winfinity was a first-time starter for John Ortiz, who stabled here at Colonial a few years ago. They paid a fair bit for the filly and we’ve seen first-time starters win these Virginia-restricted stakes here before. 

Well, Winfinity didn’t really look like a winner or even had a chance at winning until about the sixteenth pole. Everyone else was slowing down and she was just getting into gear. I think when the gray filly figures things out a little more, she should move even more forward.

Candycrumbs

Candycrumbs was the other last-to-first stakes winner, going by nine rivals in the stretch to win the Hickory Tree. The fractions in this race were slower and the final time faster than Winfinity’s race just before, so that definitely made me perk up just a little more about the two-year-old colt's performance. 

Candycrumbs comes from the barn of Mary Lightner, who doesn’t run a ton of horses but always wins a lot of races in Virginia. She’s 3-for-6 this year and a 50% winner here recently, going 3-for-8 in 2023 and 4-for-6 back in 2022.

I believe she is based at Gulfstream Park. When she run horses here, they always seem to run well. It's a smaller barn to keep an eye on.