Inge promoted in eventful Wando

TORONTO, April 21, 2018 – Inge did most of the work as the early pacesetter but couldn’t hold off a green Machtree in the final strides of Saturday’s $100,000 Wando Stakes, at Woodbine.

However, following an eventful stretch run, in which Machtree lugged in on Tale of Vienna, the stewards elevated Inge from second to first to mark the first stakes win of the season at the Rexdale oval.

Inge, with Gary Boulanger up, was quickest from the gate in the 1 1/16-mile Tapeta route, marking off splits of :24.24 and :47.64 as Flight Deck and Pipers Warrior tracked his early foot.  Inge maintained his lead through the far turn as Omar Moreno angled Tale of Vienna into contention and Patrick Husbands asked Machtree to launch his bid from the back of the six-horse field.

Inge held a precarious lead to the final sixteenth as Machtree swooped powerfully on the outside, drifting in on Tale of Vienna, who lugged into the path of a surging Titochip being piloted by Alan Garcia.  The veteran Husbands straightened out Machtree and surged home to cross the wire first by 1 3/4-lengths.  Inge held on for second, by a neck, over Tale of Vienna and Titochip.  Machtree stopped the clock in 1:44.62.

Rafael Hernandez (Pipers Warrior) claimed foul against the winner, Machtree, and third-place Tale of Vienna with the claim against Tale of Vienna allowed.

Garcia (Titochip) and Moreno (Tale of Vienna) both claimed foul against the winner, Machtree, for interference late in the stretch and both those claims of foul were allowed.

The new order of finish seeing Inge in first over Titochip and Pipers Warrior.

Norm McKnight, Woodbine’s leading trainer in 2017, was gracious following the victory.

“We’ll take it. A win’s a win. It’s unfortunate for the connections that actually won the race, but that’s racing and things happen,” McKnight said.

Inge was claimed for $40,000 out of his final start of 2017 at Woodbine and spent the winter with McKnight’s string at Oaklawn Park.

“We had in mind all along when we claimed the horse that two turns would be good for him,” McKnight said. “We had the Plate in the back of our mind with this horse and we took him to Oaklawn to experiment with that. We had some success but I wasn’t satisfied with his races there.”

Bred in Ontario by True North Stable, Inge provided owner Bruno Schickedanz with the first stakes win of the meet.  He banked $60,000 in victory while improving his record to 3-1-2 from 10 career starts.

Inge paid $10.60, $5.60 and $3.40, combining with Titochip ($5.10, $3.80) for a $62.50 (4-5) exactor. A 4-5-1 triactor (Pipers Warrior, $2.50 to show) was worth $158.50, while a $1 Superfecta [4-5-1-6 (Tale of Vienna)] came back $217.50. Archaggelos was scratched.