NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Black Tie Affair Wins by 7 1/2 in the Slop

With Arlington International Racecourse’s leading rider, Shane Sellers, riding him for the first time, Black Tie Affair pulled away from 9-10 favorite Summer Squall to win the Washington Park Handicap by 7 1/2 lengths Saturday.

The anticipated showdown between the 1990 winners of the Triple Crown races was ruined early when Unbridled was scratched because of a sloppy track.

Stalwars also was scratched, leaving four starters.

Black Tie Affair, the 3-2 second choice of the crowd of 13,855, led by 3 1/2 lengths midway down the stretch before pulling away in the 1 1/8-mile, $250,000 race.

Summer Squall easily held second. Last year’s Preakness winner finished 18 1/2 lengths clear of 9-1 Secret Hello. Go And Go, who was first in last year’s Belmont Stakes, was eased late in the stretch and wound up 25 lengths behind Secret Hello.

Unbridled, last season’s Kentucky Derby winner, is a slow starter and is at a disadvantage over a sloppy track. Earlier this year, he was a poor fifth in the 1 1/8-mile Oaklawn Handicap over a sloppy track in Hot Springs, Ark.

Black Tie Affair earned his fifth consecutive stakes victory and his sixth of the year, all at different tracks. The 5-year-old, whose owner, Jeff Sullivan, lives a couple of miles from the track in Arlington Heights, paid $5 and $2.40. Summer Squall paid $2.40; there was no show betting.

Carrying 120 pounds, one more than Summer Squall, Black Tie Affair, ridden by Pat Day in his previous three starts, was timed in 1:49 2/5 and earned $150,000. Black Tie Affair has won $1,810,694.

Lady Shirl, ridden by Richard Migliore, won Belmont Park’s $200,000 Flower Bowl Handicap for fillies and mares 3-years-old and older.

The Illinois-bred daughter of That’s A Nice covered 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf course in 2:02 1/5 and returned $22.20.