Lo Siento wins The Battle

April 16, 2001: In the Sandown Plate, billed as The Battle with Lo Siento going head-to-head with Pulledsuspensory, it was the son of Pacific Rocket out of No Time Off who performed impressively.

Lo Siento, owned by Jim Findlay, trained by Mike Glover and driven by Jim Burke, paced the mile last Sunday at Fraser Downs, in a nifty 1:55.3 for his fifth win (along with a second) in seven 2001 starts.

Lo Siento set all the fractions (26.4, 58.4 and 1:26.2) as Pulledsuspensory, owned by the Shale Stables and trained and driven by Dave Hudon, did not get a chance to battle. The Stakes winning duo raced for the lead early, Lo Siento from post three and Pulledsuspensory from outside in the field of five. Pulledsuspensory then tried to take the two hole but Red Star Rocketman, and driver Bill Davis, would have none of that. After a stint along the pylons, Pulledsuspensory worked up on the outside down the backstretch but while reaching for a challenge made a break rounding the final turn.

Lo Siento was able to pace in unchallenged while Sunalta Paddy took second and Pulledsuspensoty third.

Lo Siento, which means sorry in Spanish, now has the two fastest times (1:55.1 shared with Chubby Malone) of 2001 at the Downs.

It was a big day for Burke who also had three other wins.

“I’ve had five wins a couple of times,” a highly pleased Burke said.

Then he talked of Lo Siento.

“He is real good. I’d like to see him go back east and see how good he is.”

Burke said he meant either Alberta or Ontario and Findlay said, “We’re looking at either the Confederation Cup ($600,000 purse at Flamboro) or the Nat Christie ($200,000 at Calgary’s Stampede Park).”

Burke said that Lo Siento was sometimes “funny in the turns” but that he might be even better on a larger track. He again praised the winner of more than $80,000 lifetime, saying that “unlike most good horses who have just one move he can race in many ways.”

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