Preview Racing


Mixed Fantasy Returns in Prairie Meadows’ Covered Bridges Stakes
Graded stakes winner Mixed Fantasy will head the Covered Bridges Stakes at Prairie Meadows on Friday.

© Dustin Orona Photography
Mixed Fantasy Returns in Prairie Meadows’ Covered Bridges Stakes

BY MICHAEL CUSORTELLI

ALTOONA, IOWA—SEPTEMBER 30, 2014—Mixed Fantasy, a graded stakes winning 4-year-old Okey Dokey Fantasy gelding racing for Regina Laymon’s JK Running Horses LLC, drew post 5 for Friday’s 870-yard, $25,000 Covered Bridges Stakes at Prairie Meadows.

Trained by Kenny Laymon, Mixed Fantasy is coming off of a second-place finish to Hada Certain Charm in the September 13, $30,000 Red Cell Prairie Meadows Distance Challenge (G3). The gelding has won two of seven starts this year, including the 550-yard, $38,330 SLM Big Daddy Stakes at Remington Park on March 15.

Josh Romero has been named to ride Mixed Fantasy in the Covered Bridges.

Other contenders include Hastabealeader, a Wyoming-bred 4-year-old gelding by the Pritzi Dash stallion Hasta Be Fast owned by John G. Johnson and trained by Shilo Johnson. Hastabealeader has won two 870 races during the current Prairie Meadows, and he is coming off of a third-place run in the Red Cell Prairie Meadows Distance Challenge.

City Street, a 4-year-old gelded son of Game Patriot racing for LMR 2012 from the barn of Ed Hardy, has won three of his four starts at the 870 distance, including an allowance-optional claiming ($25,000) race in wire-to-wire fashion on August 23. City Street shipped in from Canterbury Park, where he ran second, one length behind winner Diamonds Edge, in the 440-yard, $20,000 Great Lakes Stakes on July 5.

The Covered Bridges Stakes began in 1999, when Just A Eclipse (TB) banked the winner’s share of a $24,200 purse.. Past winners of the race include King Rick Rack (2002 and ’03) and champion De Passem Okey (’11).

The complete lineup, in program-number order including post position and jockey assignments and morning-line odds—

  1. 1 (PP3) Hastabealeader (Stormy Smith), 6-5
  2. 1A (PP4) Jess Lika Blair (Stormy Smith), 6-5
  3. 2 (PP1) City Street (Berkley Packer), 5-2
  4. 3 (PP2) The Star Alert (Marcus Swiontek), 12-1
  5. 4 (PP5) Mixed Fantasy (Josh Romero), 4-1
  6. 5 (PP6) Youvebeenhenried (David E. Brown), 10-1
  7. 6 (PP7) Zonic Zoom (Tony Guymon), 8-1.

The Covered Bridges Stakes, and all Prairie Meadows races, can be seen at Q-RacingVideo.com.