Duke of Mischief back to defend his title in the Charles Town Classic
Co-owned and trained by David Fawkes, Duke of Mischief, is back to defend his title in the Charles Town Classic on 14 April, 2012, at about 1 1/8 miles on dirt at Charles Town.
The $1 million event has reeled in a massive lineup of 13 older runners, with the likes of Ecton Park horse, Tres Borrachos participating in the race, and he will look to bounce back from his 4th place finish in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap.
The runner up of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap, Tackleberry is in good form coming into the Charles Town Classic, and so are the two Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap participants, Uh Oh Bango and Norvsky, who finished third and fifth, respectively.
Cynthia Fawkes, David Fawkes and Alex Lieblong owned Duke of Mischief, though hasn’t won a race since winning the 2011 edition of the Charles Town Classic, and since then he has races three times in 2011 and twice in the new campaign, but he has gone winless
all five starts, conjuring up a best of 4th place finish twice.
“He kind of got off his game a little bit and lost interest over the year, but I worked him with (top sprinter) Apriority, and he has had some dynamite works,” Fawkes said. “I’m very confident. I think the horse is doing really well right now. He would have
been a great bull ring horse.”
The 6-year-old son of Graeme Hall, out of mare My Lady Amelia by Real Courage, Duke of Mischief this year kicked off his campaign at Gulfstream Park, where he finished a game fourth to winner Mucho Macho Man in the Sunshine Millions Classic.
Instead of improving on his big effort, Duke of Mischief completely fell away to finish a disappointing 11th in his next start to winner Roman Tiger in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes on 25 February, 2012, at about 1 1/16 miles on turf, a surface
that he hasn’t run on in his entire career.
He is back on dirt, and stretched out in distance to 1 1/8 miles from 1 1/16 miles, and on a venue that he does well on.
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