Focus Group Rallies to Win Featured Hurstland Purse on Military Day

By Amy Owens —-

Focus Group Rallies to Win Featured Hurstland Purse on Military Day

LEXINGTON, KY (April 22, 2018) – Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Focus Group rallied from far back to win Sunday’s featured $76,000 Hurstland Purse for older horses by 1¼ lengths over Gostisbehere before a crowd of 19,118 on Military Day at the Races Presented by Marathon. (Click here for a video of the race.)

Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Jose Ortiz, Focus Group covered 1½ miles on a firm turf course in 2:31.10.

A Keeneland sales graduate, Focus Group is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Kitten’s Joy out of the Dynaformer mare Cocktail Hour. The victory was worth $45,600 and increased his earnings to $117,840 with a record of 7-2-0-2.

Focus Group returned $5.60, $4.20 and $3 as the favorite in the field of 12. Gostisbehere, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., returned $22.80 and $9.40 with War Daddy finishing another 1½ lengths back in third under Corey Lanerie and paying $3 to show.

On Sunday, jockey Florent Geroux recorded the first four-win day of the meet with victories in the first, third, fifth and ninth races. Three of the victories came with horses trained by Brad Cox: The Gipper ($5.80 in the first), Majestic Affair ($5 in the third) and Strategic Ekati ($9.60 in the ninth). Geroux’s other victory came on Abounding Joy ($4.40) for trainer Rodolphe Brisset in the fifth.

The final week of Keeneland’s 2018 Spring Meet kicks off Wednesday afternoon with an eight-race program that begins at 1:05 ET.

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Sunday was Military Day at the Races Presented by Marathon, and Keeneland recognized the men and women of the armed forces and their families with activities throughout the race day. All active and inactive members of the military and their families received free general admission with a military ID.

Other activities included lunch and children’s activities for military families and the unfurling of a 40’ x 60’ American flag on the main track. (Click here for a video of the flag unfurling; a photo of the unfurling is attached.)

The horses in the third race wore camouflage saddle towels.

As a way for Keeneland to participate in #LexGiveBack week, Keeneland employees and patrons wrote letters to deployed service members in partnership with Military Missions. A tent near the Paddock was staffed by volunteer Keeneland employees.

Keeneland Photos