Superwolf wins Best of Ohio Babst/Palacios Memorial by a nose

Superwolf turned the Best of Ohio Babst/Palacios Memorial into a photo finish and, in doing so, tightened his grip on the Ohio-bred sprint division. The 4-year-old gelding got six furlongs at Belterra Park in 1:10.02 on a fast track and held off Win Herbie Win by a nose, with Henry Mac another 1 1/4 lengths back in third.

The race carried the kind of stakes weight that makes every stride matter. Run May 29 as Race 4 on the Belterra Park card, it was a $100,000 event for 3-year-olds and up, restricted to registered Ohio foals and backed by a guaranteed purse that included $35,000 from the Ohio Thoroughbred Foundation. Eight runners lined up, and Timeform had Superwolf as the favorite at 1.7-to-1, a sign the betting public expected him to be the horse to beat. He proved it, paying $3.40 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.10 to show.

That result fit the profile Superwolf brought into the race. Bred in Ohio by Mapleton Thoroughbred Farm LLC, the gelding is by Instagrand out of Sunshineandsilence, by Speightstown, and he had already put together a sharp record before this stakes score. His Equibase line now stands at 13 starts, 7 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third and $340,650 in earnings. He went into the Babst/Palacios Memorial as a multiple stakes winner, then added another state-series trophy with Erik Barbaran aboard for trainer Robert M. Gorham and owner Marion F. Gorham Revocable Trust.

The narrow margin mattered beyond one white-hot finish. Ohio-bred racing depends on horses that can keep showing up in these state-program stakes and turn them into betting races with real depth, and Superwolf did that here. Win Herbie Win and Henry Mac left the race with credentials of their own, but Superwolf’s ability to prevail in a loaded, evenly run six-furlong stakes gives him the look of a major player for the rest of the Ohio circuit.

The race also added another chapter to a Belterra Park series that has repeatedly produced useful local sprint horses. Rivers Run Deep won the 2015 Edward Babst/Albert Palacios Memorial Handicap in track-record time of 1:08.44 for six furlongs, and Dougie D Oro has also been a repeat winner in a Best of Ohio Babst/Palacios Memorial renewal. Superwolf’s nose victory fits that lineage, a close finish that says as much about the depth of the Ohio program as it does about the gelding who got there first.