Pleasant Acres celebrates post-Labor Day with three winners

Wednesday proved to be another big day for Pleasant Acres stallions, with John’s Promise and La Flamenca winning for Handsome Mike and New Found Treasure scoring for Treasure Beach.

It took Raul Mena one prep race to get acquainted with John’s Promise at Delaware Park, and now the duo has won three in a row in the span of one month. The 4-year-old gelding tracked the leaders in fourth place in the $32,000 starter allowance going 5 1/2 furlongs, while the leaders put up sizzling fractions of :21.61 and :45.93.

Mena swung him four wide into the stretch and John’s Promise did the rest, drawing off to win by 1 1/4 lengths. He paid $13.40 and collected a check for $19,200, raising his total to $55,303 on a record of 4-1-1 in 10 starts.

In the previous race, La Flamenca set all the pace (:22.84, :46.34) with Roberto Alvarado Jr. and went on to win by two lengths in 1:12.05 for the six furlongs, paying $5.80 as favorite. The 3-year-old filly is 3-4-3 in 18 tries with earnings of $57,190. She earned an Equibase ‘E’ rating of 80, her best ever.

At Penn National, New Found Treasure prevailed following a furious stretch run on the grass that wound up with the first four favorites having their noses on the wire at the end of a mile and 70 yards.

Julio Hernandez aboard New Found Treasure tracked the leaders on the inside down the backstretch. The rider swung the 4-year-old Treasure Beach filly to mid-course heading for home and it took a quite a while for the placing judges to get the order straight. The filly bred by Stonehedge Farm paid $8, raising her record to 6-2-7 in 28 starts and her earnings to $91,968. Her clocking of 1:38.73 is only 1 1/2 seconds off the course record that has stood since 1978.