BY TAMMY A GANTT

Vegso Racing Stable’s Taj Mahal wins $100,000 Miracle Wood by a neck over a field of 3-year-olds going a mile over a muddy, sealed track at Laurel Park Saturday.

The bay colt by Nyquist out of Oola Gal by Quality Road might have been the least experienced in the field but didn’t show it leading gate to wire to win. 

The horse broke well and set a comfortable pace to the far turn before Let’s Go Lando moved to threaten the lead. Not to be headed, Taj Mahal responded to urging and hung on to his slight advantage down the stretch moving unrelentingly to the wire.

Let’s Go Lando ranged up in the backstretch before making a bid drawing alongside Taj Mahal only a head apart from the three-quarters pole through the stretch. With three furlongs left, the horse still had not switched from the left lead, doing so in the final jumps left in the race just missing in a gutsy effort. Close the Gate finished three-and-three-quarters lengths back for third.

Trained by Brittany Russell, Taj Mahal came into the race off an impressive debut showcasing a quick turn of foot on Feb. 6.

Owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashor Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital, and Catherine Donovan’s, Taj Mahal, the colt was a $525,000 yearling purchase.

The wife-husband team of trainer Russell and jockey Sheldon Russell swept both 3-year-old stakes of the day.

Return to the February 21 issue of Wire to Wire