Red Rifle, Always Kitten gallop to wins at SHRP

Todd Pletcher-trained Red Rifle knocked down a Sam Houston Race Park track record in winning Saturday night’s $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup.

Ridden by Robby Albarado, Pletcher’s first horse to run at SHRP clocked 1 minute, 48.73 seconds for the 1 1⁄8- mile distance. Even then, the 4-year-old colt had plenty left.

“I had to hold him back a little bit,” Albarado said. “Todd wanted him in the lead right away to keep his face clean (free from flying dirt). When he got the lead, he wouldn’t give it up.”

A strong finish by Frac Daddy could not overtake the winner.

Even after that win, the crowd buzz was about jockey Rosie Napravnik.

She achieved one of the most unlikely rides in the track’s two-decade history, surging from last place to first aboard Always Kitten in the $50,000 Jersey Lilly Stakes.

“We broke a little late, and then she (Always Kitten) clipped heels with another horse,” Napravnik said.

The result was getting away dead last in the 1 1⁄16mile turf race.

“That was a little farther back then she usually is,” Napravnik said. “Even then, I absolutely thought we could still win. She has an amazing kick.”

That kick brought Always Kitten to within 100 yards of the finish behind six horses. Napravnik kept urging her, and she gained the finish line a few feet before Every Way and Vilao.

Jockey Lindey Wade made his first ride aboard Ibaka — a winner in the $50,000 Texas Heritage Stakes.

Ibaka, who won the Jim’s Orbit Stakes at SHRP two weeks ago, shot from the starting gate and never trailed.

He was pressed by Sea View Chico —ridden by Albarado — nearly the entire mile distance.

“I didn’t know what kind of horse Ibaka was until a let him out a notch in the backstretch,” Wade said. “I was a little surprised. He gave me so much, I had to pull him back a little.”

No match for Bret Calhoun-trained, Doug Wall-owned Ibaka, Sea View Chico steadily faded to second.

Kowboy Boots, the field’s other top-ranked 3-year-old, encountered traffic problems and could get no closer than third.

Favorites won all three stakes races. The $2 win ticket returned $4.80 on Ibaka, $4.80 on Always Kitten and $4 on Red Rifle.