Tackleberry, Duke of Mischief and Uh Oh Bango ready to wreak havoc in the Charles Town Classic
The top players for the Charles Town Classic, a grade 2 for the first time, are Tackleberry and Duke of Mischief, while Tackleberry has been far better than Duke of Mischief in his previous races with a prominent three race win streak, on the other hand
Duke of Mischief is someone who hasn’t been anywhere near Tackleberry’s past record but has an advantage of winning The Charles Town Classic because he did win it last time around when it was still a grade 3 race.
The 6-year-old David Fawkes trained Duke of Mischief has lost 5 consecutive races since winning the 2011 edition of the Charles Town Classic, and best he could do was finish 4th twice in that long losing streak.
“I was very disappointed in his effort,” trainer David Fawkes said. “He seems to have come back to himself. His works are really good, his attitude is good. I’m not jumping out of my skin, but I don’t think it’s a tougher race than it was last year.”
While Fawkes sees it as easy as last year, he mustn’t forget that the Florida bred, trained and owned by Luis Olivares, Tackleberry has had only one blemish in his past 6 races, and it was in the Grade 1 Met Mile last year in May when he finished 9th.
The 2011 races that he won include the Sunshine Millions Classic at about 1 1/8 miles at Gulfstream Park where he defeated Duke of Mischief in second place.
His second win of the previous season was in the Grade 2 GP Sprint Championship at seven furlongs, and he completed his hat-trick of wins in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap when he defeated Soaring Empire and Tizway in the process.
Last year Tackleberry finished fourth in the Charles Town Classic.
Another threat to both of them could be the winner of the Grade 2 San Pasqual, Uh Oh Bango, who showed a good run after a game second to Game on Dude in the San Antonio Stakes, and recently a placed finish in the Santa Anita Handicap.
“I think he finally figured out how he likes to run and I think the riders have started to figure him out,” said trainer Kory Owens.
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