BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Anthony Rogers’ Echo Lane pressured Devil’s Harvest through six furlongs before taking over at the top of the stretch and holding on to a half-length victory over Sugoi in the $189,105 Claiming Crown Emerald at Churchill Downs Saturday. The Claiming Crown Emerald, a $25,000 starter allowance for a dozen 3-year-olds and older going a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the grass, was one of eight Claiming Crown races at Churchill Saturday worth $1.1 million for various divisions, all under starter allowance conditions.

Discounted at odds of 12-1, Echo Lane sat a half-length off Devil’s Harvest through quarter-mile splits of :22.76, :47.32 and 1:11.43 before accelerating to a two-and-a-half-length lead in deep stretch. Sugoi came on late from fifth but came up a half-length shy of Echo Lane under the wire in a final time of 1:45.09. Harrow was another half-length back in third followed by Warrior Richard, Good Governance, Journeyman, Bizzee, Kentucky Ghost, Tidal Forces, Huge Bigly, Cadet Corps and Devil’s Harvest. Franz Josef, Nip N Tuck, Saint in the City and Tatanska scratched off the also eligible list.

Ridden by Luis Saez for trainer Rohan Crichton, Echo Lane paid $27.04 to win.

Crichton claimed Echo Lane for $25,000 out of a third-place finish in a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park in December of 2023.

Since the claim, Echo Lane has won of four of nine starts and $153,487 including a $25,000 starter allowance going nine furlongs on the turf at Colonial Downs on Aug. 17. In one start since, he was fourth, three lengths off winner Deterministic, in the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs on Sept. 7. 

Echo Lane is by Treasure Beach (GB) out of Misbehavin Miss, by Mineshaft and was bred in Florida by Echo Lane of Ocala, LLC. The 3-year-old colt has now won four of 16 career starts with two seconds and three thirds with earnings of $177,767.

The Claiming Crown was launched in 1999 by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to celebrate the blue-collar horses that largely race outside the spotlight.

Return to the November 16 issue of Wire to Wire