CARVE won for the fourth time in his last six starts this year, including two consecutive stakes, after taking the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s S. The 4-year-old son of FIRST SAMURAIpressed the early pace in this 1 1/16-mile contest at Mountaineer. He challenged the early frontrunner on the far turn, took the lead with a quarter mile to go and fought off two separate challenges down the stretch to earn the victory by a neck. CARVE was coming off a win in the $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H.-G3. Bred by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider out of the A.P. Indy mare Apt, he also placed in the 2013 G1 Arkansas Derby and in this year’s Oaklawn H.-G2, and now has earnings of $686,931 for owner Michael Langford and trainer by Brad Cox.
