Horse Racing Roundup : Cryptoclearance Scores Win in Hawthorne Gold Cup

Cryptoclearance charged around the final turn to overpower 3-10 favorite Cutlass Reality and win the $506,000 Budweiser-Hawthorne Gold Cup by 10 lengths Saturday at Hawthorne Race Course in Chicago.

Cutlass Reality, who had won his last five races in California while defeating such top horses as Alysheba, Ferdinand and Gulch, finished second in the 52nd running of the 1-mile race.

Nostalgia’s Star, the defending champion who upset Creme Fraiche a year ago, was a half-length farther back in the field of four horses.

General Silver was last after leading by as many as 10 lengths early in the race.

Manzotti, the third favorite in the morning line, was scratched after suffering an eye injury in his stall.

Cryptoclearance, ridden by Jose Santos, paid $7, $2.20 and $2.10 and was timed in 2:00 1/5 while carrying 117 pounds.

Cutlass Reality, who carried high weight of 124 pounds, including Gary Stevens, returned $2.20 and $2.10. Nostalgia’s Star paid $2.10.

The winner earned $33,690 to raise his career earnings to $2,058,117.

Cryptoclearance, a 4-year-old son of Fappiano, trailed by more than 12 lengths after a half-mile and then gradually moved forward.

Mercedes Won, a colt purchased for $5,700 at the Keeneland yearling sale, beat Fast Play by a half-length and won the $237,200 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the richest race for 2-year-olds so far this year.

Mercedes Won, ridden by Robbie Davis, rallied widest on the turn in the field of six. Fast Play, with Randy Romero up, finished 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Leading Prospect, ridden by Chris Antley. They all carried 122 pounds.

“To me, he’s as good as any of the other two-year-olds right now,” Davis said of Mercedes Won, who went 6 1/2 furlongs on the fast track in 1:16 3/5 for his fourth straight victory. ‘I know they didn’t pay much for him, but to me he feels like a million-dollar colt and he could very well become one.”

It was the third consecutive stakes victory for Mercedes Won, who took Woodbine’s Swynford Stakes Aug. 6 and Saratoga’s Sanford Stakes Aug. 17

Mercedes Won earned $142,320 for Christopher Spencer, raising his career earnings to $248,660.

“This was the fourth win in a row, but I think his third (the Sanford) was the toughest,” trainer Arnold Fink said. “You have to run through the conditions. You can’t take anything away from any of them. They all ran hard. I don’t know what’s next for him. I just go day by day.”

Mercedes Won paid $7.20, $3.20 and $2.60; Fast Play paid $3.60 and $2.60; Leading Prospect paid $3.20.