Storm Prince Upsets Vance Lobell

For the second consecutive night, an odds-on favorite was beaten in the feature race Saturday night at Los Alamitos. Vance Lobell, the 1-to-5 favorite, took the field to the three-quarter mark in a blistering 1:25.3 but couldn’t hang on, losing to Storm Prince in the $10,000 Invitational Pace.

Storm Prince took the lead out of the gate, let Vance Lobell take over at the quarter-mile mark and bided his time until springing loose at the top of the stretch to win in a meet’s best time of 1:54.3.

Storm Prince, driven by Abe Stoltzfus, paid $13.80, $3 and $3.40, Vance Lobell paid $2.40 and $2.40. Winning Night paid $3.20 to show.

Veteran driver Rick Kuebler escaped injury Saturday night after being thrown from the sulky in a mishap during warmups before the race program started.

Kuebler was warming up 4-year-old pacer Glasair for the second race when the left lead-line snapped and the horse went on a runaway. Glasair slammed into the rail and flipped Kuebler to the infield. Kuebler walked away from the incident without injury.

Glasair was caught unharmed and raced in the second race, finishing third with Kuebler driving.