With the crowd still abuzz after Billy Cayenne's victory in the Apollo Sprint, the horses made their way to the track for the post parade, for the Mercury Mile. Out of pp 1 we have surfside's Sweet Robin, 2-rkeogh's Alycandle, 3-sleworamas' Again Sneek, 4-varsity's Colonial Elk(IRE), 5-bird's Person Roger, 6-bgs' Lightning Jest, 7-mindbolt's Deputy Gretchen, 8- toplight's Ground Tarbash, 9-supertoy'7's East Till Bold, 10-woodlyns' One Minstrel, 11-opinora's Rapid Ruckus, and rounding out the field is #12 vikingfarm's His Phone.

The crowd reaches a fevered pitch as the field starts to load into the gate. They're all in line, and away they go. Out of the gate Sweet Robin breaks sharply and goes to the front. Lightning Jest just outside him goes along and from the outside East Till Bold joins in the fun. As the exit the turn East Till Bold takes a short lead. By the turn for home Sweet Robin, and Lightning Jest have started to pack it in. From the back of the pack Ground Tarbash(GB) has started to make his move, and as he catches Person Roger he joins the hunt. As they hit the top of the stretch the race is on. East Till Bold has set some good fractions. Can he hang on? As they near the 1/16th pole Ground Tarbash and Person Roger have closed the gap considerably, but may be too late. At the wire it's East Till Bold with the GOLD, Ground Tarbash(GB) with the SILVER, and Person Roger with the BRONZE.

The final time was 1:34.3 for this beautiful bay horse by Affirmed. Jockey T. Maguire after the race had this to say," This is a magnificent horse. When I asked for more he gave it. When I looked back and saw those 2 coming with a full head of steam I thought it would be close, but this horse was not to be denied."

The winning owner/trainer supertoy7 had this to say at the medal presentation, "I am very pleased with his run today. He showed the people of the World that MN has fantastic horses also. I hope this exposure will help persuade people to bring their horses to MN, because they will get a good race. We are not just a small track in the Midwest." As to where he goes next he had this to say, "I will give him a couple weeks off and go from there. I would like to go to the Breeders Bowl, but I'm undecided whether to sprint of go long with him. We will see how he comes out of this race and how he works after his rest."

Well, that will wrap up my coverage from VT, it's back to warm Southern California for me. The weather was beautiful but the nights were getting a little to cold for me. I also need a break from all those parties, and if I never hear the chicken dance song again it will be fine by me. See everyone from sunny CA next week.