Audience Of One in starring role

Audience Of One, a one-time $8,000 claimer this spring, continued his amazing transformation on Friday night (Aug. 28) as he stormed right to the front and made every call a winning knocking off nine rivals by a half-length in 1:52.4 in the $40,000 Egyptian Stakes.

Hustled away from post position 5 by Maywood Park’s leading driver, Josh Sutton, the gelded son of Art’s Conquest stormed right to the front as he led the field through an opening quarter in 26.4.

Catching a second quarter breather, the David McCaffrey-trainee enjoyed a 1-1/2-length advantage as he cruised by the halfway station in 56.

“We were pretty fortunate tonight,” said Sutton. “When he won the Cook County Stakes here it was tough to get him to relax once I got him revved up, but tonight he was nice and relaxed and with nobody coming at us I was able to get away with a pretty easy second quarter.”

Heading for the three-quarter-mile mark, Thisbigdogwillfight (Dave Magee), the even-money favorite in the race, came calling but Audience Of One picked up the pace and had no trouble putting away the challenge of the favorite as he maintained his 1-1/2-length advantage while rolling by the three-quarter-mile mark in 1:23.4.

“My horse can get a little lazy if you don’t keep after him so I decided to put the pedal down and try to sprint away from the field heading down the backside,” explained Sutton. “Once I saw Dave’s horse (Thisbigdogwillfight) start to fade on the outside of us I felt pretty confident.”

Holding firm the rest of the way the speedy 6-year-old was on cruise control as he rolled under the wire with his sixth win in 16 starts. Sports Fanatic (Brandon Simpson) shook loose late and rallied sharply to finish second while Fox Valley Gambler (Tyler Buter) turned a ground-saving trip into a third-place finish.

In the winner's circle Sutton continued to sing the praises of this one-time claimer owned by Z Tam Racing and McCaffrey, who has now amassed more than $63,000 in earnings this season.

“He’s a great big horse but he gets around this half-mile oval like he’s a tiny little thing,” marveled Sutton. “With the way he is right now you’d really have a hard time believing that he was in an eight claimer earlier this year.” (Balmoral)

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