Now a winner in his last five starts, LAST GUNFIGHTER became his sire’s newest graded stakes winner after taking the Excelsior S.-G3 by two lengths. Racing 1 1/8 miles on Aqueduct’s inner track, the 4-year-old colt by FIRST SAMURAI sat behind the frontrunners early on, had to handle traffic problems several times, but eventually found an opening on the rail and kicked clear for the win. The Excelsior was LAST GUNFIGHTER’s third stakes win in a row after taking this track’s Evening Attire S. on a fast track and the Raymond Earl S. by 4 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track. A homebred for John D. Gunther and trained by Chad Brown, LAST GUNFIGHTER now has five wins and four placings in nine career starts and earnings of nearly $300,000.
The 4-year-old filly KAMINARI won her stakes debut when she overhauled the leader in deep stretch to take the one-mile Gold Coast S. Racing less than two lengths off the lead in the early going after breaking from post one, the daughter of FIRST SAMURAI angled out with a little more than a furlong to go and wore down the frontrunner to get the win by 3/4 length at Delta Downs. KAMINARI won a six-furlong Maiden Special Weight at Ellis Park in only her second career start last July and also won seven-furlong allowance here in January.