Papis Pistol backed up his impressive win in the final preliminary round last week with a 1:50 3/5 decision in the $148,500 Kindergarten Series final for rookie pacing colts and geldings on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.
With Andy Miller in tow, Papis Pistol landed in fourth from post six and then began his march to the lead past the 27 second opening quarter. Papis Pistol joined Manolete (Scott Zeron) on the front-end en route to the 55 3/5 half and went by him passing that station to take over command.
From there, it was all Papis Pistol as he was unchallenged to three-quarters in 1:23 1/5 and then used a 27 2/5 final quarter to seal his three length victory. Manolete was the runner-up and Tom Horn (David Miller) got third. Attaboychet (Anibal Borjas) and Seaworthy Hanover (Dexter Dunn) finished in fourth and fifth.
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"I was just letting them settle a little bit and then I moved him up the backside. He just cruised along, and he was well within himself finishing, too," Andy Miller remarked after the win. "It's a horse race; they can get always get beat, but if he raced back like he did last week, they were going to have a hard time beating him.
"I was just kind of letting him pace down through there and nobody was getting to my wheel, so I just let him go where he was comfortable."
A colt from the first crop of Papi Rob Hanover, Papis Pistol is trained by Sam De Pinto and owned by Shannon Depinto, Chris Arvanitis and co-breeder Anthony Perretti. Joe Davino and Brad Shackman also have breeding credits on Papis Pistol, who has a summary of 4-2-2 from 13 outings and earnings of $159,533. He paid $2.60 to win as the 1-5 favorite.
Papi's Rocket nipped 2-5 public choice Railroad Station in the $47,700 consolation in 1:52 1/5. The 6-5 second choice, a son of Papi Rob Hanover-Real Touch, was piloted by Yannick Gingras and trained by Ron Burke.
--consolation recap from the Meadowlands--