Claim Watch: Wok Don't Run

Runhappy three-year-old from the elite Special branch of family 5h is entered for $16,000 at Colonial Downs this Thursday

The second race at Colonial Downs this Thursday features a field of $16,000 non-winners of three going 6 1/2 furlongs on the dirt. Drawing the outside in the field of eight is the three-year-old Runhappy filly Wok Don’t Run, owned by Crossed Sabres Farm LLC and trained by Marcus Vitali. A $70,000 Keeneland September yearling and $85,000 OBS April two-year-old last year, Wok Don’t Run looks to be an intriguing broodmare prospect at a very modest price.

Wok Don’t Run as a two-year-old at OBS April 2023

Although she has only a single win to her name, Wok Don’t Run has only finished out of the top four twice in her 12-race career: on debut at Del Mar, when she faded after being crowded around the far turn, and this past January in a starter optional claiming at Santa Anita, where she was simply overmatched. Off that debut effort in the barn of Ryan Hanson, she was entered for a $30,000 maiden claiming tag at Los Alamitos and won the 5 1/2 furlong event gamely despite dueling between horses. She resurfaced in the barn of Matthew Troy at Golden Gate and finished second by less than a length in a 5 1/2 furlong starter optional claiming event over the tapeta before finishing fourth of six in the Golden Gate Debutante Stakes. She returned downstate to the Ryan Hanson barn and finished out her two-year-old season with a runner-up effort in a $32,000 claiming race, again beaten only half a length.

She began her three-year-old season with the aforementioned starter optional claiming race at Santa Anita, where she failed to defeat a horse, then was a well-beaten third in a Turf Paradise starter optional claiming race. After a two month hiatus, she started again at Turf Paradise, this time for trainer Vann Belvoir, and rallied from the six path to finish second in a $15,000 claiming non-winners of two going six furlongs. She was claimed by Vitali and Crossed Sabres out of that race and moved up to Presque Isle Downs, where she raced three times for a $25,000 tag, finishing second, third, and fourth in those efforts. She was most recently seen on August 4th at Mountaineer, trying the turf for the first time and finishing fourth by three lengths in a non-winners of two allowance after ducking to the outside fence at the break.