Nobals and Gerardo Corrales hold on to win the Twin Spires Turf Sprint (Daniella Ricci/Past The Wire)
Churchill Downs Press Release
LOUISVILLE, Ky.— Patricia’s Hope’s Nobals took the lead shortly after the start and repelled all challenges to win the 29th running of the $500,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint presented by Cohere Health (GII) for 3-year-olds and up.
Trained by Larry Rivelli and ridden by Gerardo Corrales, Nobals covered the 5 ½ furlongs on the firm Matt Winn Turf Course in a stakes-record 1:02.45.
Breaking from the inside, Nobals led the field through an opening quarter of :22.03 while under pressure from Noble Reflection. Corrales maintained his spot along the rail entering the stretch and quickly opened a clear advantage with enough cushion to hold off a late bid from Motorious (GB).
The first graded stakes victory for Nobals was worth $291,400 and increased his earnings to $725,074 with a record of 14-7-2-0.
Nobals is 4-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Noble Mission (GB) out of the Empire Maker mare Pearly Blue.
Nobals returned $78.42, $34.62 and $17.56. Motorious returned $5.76 and $4.46 under Flavien Prat and finished 1 ½ lengths in front of Go Bears Go (IRE), who paid $7.12 to show under John Velazquez.
It was another 1 ¼ lengths back to Noble Reflection, who was followed in order by favored Arrest Me Red, Bad Beat Brian, Big Invasion, Evan Sing, Oceanic, Just Might and Carotari.
TWIN SPIRES TURF SPRINT QUOTES
Gerardo Corrales (jockey, Nobals, winner) – “This is a nice horse. He was a runner all the way. Mr. Rivelli (trainer Larry Rivelli) told me that I could do it and he wished me good luck. For me, this is the biggest purse ($500,000) that I’ve ever won. It’s exciting.”
Larry Rivelli (trainer, Nobals, winner) – “We were all coming down, and figured that we would throw him into a race, and see how he’d do. I thought he was going to run good, I wasn’t sure if he was going to win. His last race (at Keeneland) was a throwout. He was acting up in the gate and got off to a bad start. I schooled him all week, he didn’t act up in the gate all, so I told the kid (Corrales), ‘Let’s go.’ That’s the way the horse likes to run. I knew he was going to show up, but I wasn’t sure if he could beat this quality. I told the jockey, go no matter what. You go out there and make the lead, and he said, ‘Yes, sir’.”
Flavien Prat (jockey, Motorious, second) – “We had a good trip. He broke OK and was traveling well. He made a good kick and for a second I thought I was going to be the winner.”
John Velazquez (jockey, Go Bears Go, third) – “I got a good trip. He broke well and got a good position. I had to wait a little bit at the 3/8th pole with a horse in front of me but when I got through, he ran well to the finish.”
