Rain Ruins Peppers Pride's Chance at Record

Peppers Pride (right) scratched at the Lincoln Handicap on Saturday. (AP Images)"]

Peppers Pride record try for the most consecutive victories will have to wait until another day, as she was scratched yesterday from the $67,500 Lincoln Handicap at Ruidoso Downs due to sloppy track conditions.

Trainer Joel Marr waited until the sixth race before he decided to scratch Peppers Pride; the filly was attempting to win her 17th straight win. Had she won, the victory would have put her ahead of Triple Crown winner Citation, Cigar (two-time winner horse of the year), Mister Frisky and Hallowed Dreams.

"I had a horse in the sixth race and I discussed it with Carlos to find out what he thought," Marr said. "Then it rained during the race and the track was pretty slick. It seemed to be getting progressively worse."

Marr decided to wait for a better opportunity rather than risking possible injury to the filly.

"It's disappointing. I guess Mother Nature knows something we don't," the trainer said. "They've done a great job with the track, but it doesn't matter how good it is, if it's sloppy and slick you increase your chance of injury or something else happening. It just wasn't worth it."

The weather has been mostly light rain at Ruidoso Downs the last two days according to Marr.

"Then after about 10 a.m. (today] we had a couple of good showers and it turned muddy," he said.

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