Colonel Thoroughbreds LLC.’s Ours to Run extended her win streak to five with a dominating performance in Saturday’s $150,000 Carousel Stakes before a crowd of 16,000 in attendance for the annual Boat & Truck Giveaway. It was the fifth straight stakes victory for the Louisiana-bred daughter of Half Ours and first against open company.

“She’s done really well,” trainer Larry Jones said. “There wasn’t anything else to do with her in Louisiana right at this moment. We had a little space and she was doing good. It was maybe the time to try it. They were predicting rain. She loves the off track, so that was not against us at all when this happened. I can’t say that we maybe won’t keep her with some open company because now Louisiana is penalizing her so much. She’s packing so much more weight than the other horses. Her last win, she was 9 pounds heavier than anybody. There comes a time when you’ve got to start taking that into consideration. She handled this so well, so we may go to the drawing board and try to see what else we can come up with.”

In the Carousel, Ours to Run patiently raced behind the early speed in fourth as Salt Brae led for a quarter mile in :21 4/5. Shanghai Tariff took over before a half mile in :45, but that was short lived as she was quickly headed by heavy favorite Mia Mischief and the eventual winner at the top of the stretch. As soon as jockey Terry Thompson asked, Ours to Run responded by drawing away from her competition and winning easily by 3 ¾ lengths in 1:10 4/5 for six furlongs over a sloppy track. Mia Mischief held second with Shanghai Tariff third.

“It was a short field with lots of speed on the inside,” Thompson said. “I had the perfect post position to see how the race set up. It worked out just like Larry and I thought. She engaged them at the top of the stretch and gave me all that she had. She dominated at the end.”

Ours to Run improved her record to 11-2-1 from 19 starts and has now earned $427,988. The 5-year-old mare returned $8.80, $3 and $2.20 as the 3-1 second choice in the field of five. Multiple Oaklawn stakes winner Amy’s Challenge scratched from the race in favor of the Grade 1 Madison Stakes where she finished a narrow second.

The other big winner Saturday was Julie Erkel from Brentwood, TN, who won a new 2018 Ford F150 Supercab 4X2 courtesy of Crain Automotive Team and a 20ft Sylvan Mirage 820 CC Pontoon courtesy of Gregg Orr Marine. Erkel was one of 16 finalists selected by the winning jockey after each of the first eight races. Winning jockey Terry Thompson drew her name after winning the Carousel.