Team Naylor recorded its second feature-race victory of the weekend when leading owner Irv Naylor’s Top Man Michael set all the pace in Sunday’s $25,000 Winterthur Bowl and drew away late to a 4 3/4-length victory.
Armata Stables’ Cornhusker finished second, 3 1/2 lengths clear of Kiplin Hall’s Rodriguez in third. Naylor’s Takepointsandrun finished fourth in the 3 1/4-mile race over timber fences at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in suburban Wilmington, Del.
Making his first start of the season for trainer Cyril Murphy, Top Man Michael was ridden by Gus Dahl, who also was in the saddle for Ebanour’s second straight victory in the $100,000 Virginia Gold Cup a day earlier.
Unlike the Virginia Gold Cup, where Murphy-trained Ebanour closed from last place and picked up a coating of mud, Dahl kept Naylor’s green-and-gold silks clean in the Winterthur Bowl by blazing the trail over the undulating course.
An Irish-bred eight-year-old, Top Man Michael ran the Winterthur Bowl’s distance in 6:36.40 on turf rated as soft.