Crash Course (5) passes Unite's Big Red, obscured behind Crash Course, and Eltawaasul, right, to win the Mac Diarmida Handicap.
Crash Course rallied to win Sunday in the $100,000, grade III Mac Diarmida Handicap for older horses. Crash Course, ridden by jockey Jerry Bailey, finished a half length ahead of Unite's Big Red, a 28-1 shot. Crash Course ran 1 3/8 miles in 2:16.2 and paid $7.60, $5 and $3.60. Unite's Big Red paid $18.40 and $9. Eltawaasul paid $6.40 to show. Crash Course moved into third place nearing the sixteenth pole on the outside and took the lead. Unite's Big Red won the photo over Eltawaasul. Profit Option, seventh with three-eighths of a mile to run, finished fourth after starting in last place in a field of 12. Crash Course, owned and bred by J. Mack Robinson, is a 6-year-old gelded son of Holy Bull. He has won seven of 26 starts, with all of the victories on grass. Trained by Warren A. Croll Jr., Crash Course has earned $401,275. Winless in 2000, Crash Course won three of 11 starts last year and was in the money nine times, earning $213,880. His lone stakes victory in 2001 was the grade III Cliff Hanger Handicap at Meadowlands.(Chart, Equibase)
