Gray Slewpy Winner by a Head in Speed Duel With Potentiality

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. —  Gray Slewpy and Potentiality battled from the start Thursday and the former kept an enviable record intact by finishing a head in front in the $100,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

The leaders sizzled through the first quarter in 21 2/5 and the half in 44 1/5 and still had enough left to finish six furlongs in 1:08 4/5, fastest time of the year for that distance at Oaklawn.

Gray Slewpy, shipped from California for the race, has won six of eight starts and is unbeaten at distances under seven furlongs.

As the 1-2 favorite in the field of seven older sprinters, Gray Slewpy paid $3, $2.60 and $2.40. Potentiality paid $3.40 and $2.60, and Hidden Tomahawk, another five lengths back, returned $3.20.

The leaders battled through the turn and down the stretch. Kent Desormeaux hit Gray Slewpy a half-dozen times left-handed and twice right-handed in the final 100 yards.

“He had me until the last 30 yards,” Desormeaux said. “What a horse, huh?”