Tapiture goes outside to win West Virginia Derby

August 3, 2014 at 12:10a.m.

By ROBERT CONNELLY

CHESTER, W.Va.

West Virginia Derby

Tapiture won the West Virginia Derby beating Candy Boy by a nose, making it the third race in the history of Mountaineer Race Track to win by such a close call.

Tapiture pulled off a risky move, going from the inside to the outside during the final stretch, to win the West Virginia Derby by a nose Saturday at Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort.

After the finish, judges met before a replay screen to determine the winner between pre-race favorite Candy Boy and Tapiture.

Tapiture won the $750,000 Derby, the 45th annual running of the race presented by Xpressbet.com. Eight horses raced and Tapiture returned $13.60 after finishing in 1:50.66.

This was the third nose-finish in Derby history — the previous ones were in 1976 (Wardlaw) and 2007 (Zanjero). The latter horse was owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC (Ron Winchell et al.), also the owners of Tapiture.

“I’ve actually seen him do that move before,” Ron Winchell said of the late move. ”He’s had some bad luck with trips, but at least this time it paid off with a win.”

Jockey Rosie Napravnik guided Tapiture to the win. Trainer Steve Asumussen won his record-fifth Derby.

There were periods of rain throughout the day, but the weather was clear with a slight drizzle for the biggest race before thousands of fans.

The rain did cause the two turf races to be canceled and run on the main dirt track. Those were The West Virginia Senate “President’s Cup” and The West Virginia House of Delegates “Speaker’s Cup.” Both races had $100,000 guaranteed.

Throughout the day, the crowd would increase in volume towards the end of a race, with shouts of “go” and “get there” frequently heard. Napravnik said her concern was watching Vicar’s in Trouble and Candy Boy.

“It ended up the two of them had me blocked in for quite awhile,” Napravnik said. “This was definitely a race all about the quality of the horse.

“A couple of the spots I picked to get through didn’t work out and I mean it was just definitely all the horse talent just pulling us through to get to the front.”

Napravnik improved her total purse earnings to $7,546,784 for 2014. She increased her win total to 134 and has 13 graded stakes wins and 27 for her career.

“I was absolutely holding my breath,” Winhell said. “It was exciting.”

The top three odds-on-bets were 3-1 Vicar’s in Trouble, 5-2 Tapiture and 9-5 Candy Boy, the favorite.

Of Tapiture’s next race, Winchell said, “I think a good possibility is the Pennsylvania Derby. The horse seems to do very well with extra time.”

Rembrandt Wright, whose horses are trained in Garrettsville, said the rain helped speed up the track.

“[Fans] will see that [horses] have a lot kickback normally when they run because it’s loose and horses normally don’t get a hold of it,” Wright said. “So when this track gets wet, it gets faster than it normally does otherwise.”

Overall, Mountaineer experienced on-site wagering of $260,502 and total wagering of $2,818,111. The casino and racetrack is owned by MTR Gaming, Inc.