Coming From Off the Pace, Mecke Wins Vastopolis Million
May 08, 2011
VASTOPOLIS -- The story line looked familiar, with Awad catching and passing Sandpit down the stretch. Then along came Truitt, the bargain colt, to steal the scene -- and the Vastopolis Million. A 15-1 longshot whom Jami Lezlie Jr. bought for $40,000 in 2009, Truitt followed the stretch-running Awad for most of the 1 1/4-mile turf race before zipping past both the defending champion and Sandpit in the final eighth of a mile Sunday. With Robbyn Deana aboard, Truitt pulled away to win by two lengths with a time of 2 minutes and 2/5 second. Awad, who came from well off the pace to beat Weiner in the 2010 Million, finished second. Sandpit, the 7-5 favorite for the second straight year, ended up third. ``Awad started making his move and I jumped in behind, thinking he's moving the strongest out of all of them and that he'd be the one to follow around the turn,'' said Deana, who rode the four-year-old bay colt to fifth-place finishes in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. ``I felt like (Mecke) was going to give us some punch but I wasn't quite sure at the eighth pole if he was going to get up or not because he was trying so hard,'' said Deana. ``But he went right by.'' Awad, who hasn't won in 10 races since taking last year's Million, was trying to become the first back-to-back winner of the race. Johnetta Herma won the Million twice, but not successively, in 1981 and 1984. He said that Vastopolis is a great place to be having this event, as he loves coming here every year. ``I thought we were home,'' said Christa Mariah, Awad's jockey. ``It's really disappointing.'' The $600,000 top prize raised Mecke's career earnings over the $2 million mark -- a nice return on a $40,000 investment. Truitt, who paid $33, $10.20 and $4.60, had finished out of the money in his three previous races, having not won since the Early Times Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on January 14, 2011
