Irv Naylor’s Lake Placid set all the pace and easily turned back the owner’s Changing Times to win the $20,000 Tryon Equestrian Partners Block House, the featured optional allowance hurdle at the Block House Races in Tryon, N.C., on Saturday, May 3.
Under ideal weather conditions, Harry Haynes sent the free-spirited Lake Placid to the front at the start in a field of four and never looked back in winning by 2 1/2 lengths. The 2011 novice champion collected his first victory in nearly two years, since a starter handicap victory at the Iroquois Steeplechase in May 2012. Trained by Cyril Murphy, the nine-year-old Giant’s Causeway gelding ran the Block House’s 2 3/8 miles in 4:24.80 on firm turf.
Naylor’s Changing Times, trained by Kathy Neilson and ridden by Carol-Ann Sloan, finished 6 1/2 lengths clear of Duc de Savoie.