On-Fire Practical Joke Registers Second Stakes Winner of Day

It was two stakes winners in a matter of hours for Practical Joke on Saturday when Little Vic (6h Practical Joke x Rock and Glory, by Rock Hard Ten) won the Grade III Fred W. Hooper Stakes after Tejano Twist’s win earlier in the day.

Looking for his eighth career win in the one-mile dirt race, the Grade III winner broke from the inside gate and immediately bolted to the lead. The entire was under pressure from Tumbarumba with that one sticking just about half a length behind him down the backstretch.

Jockey Leonel Reyes looked confident in his mount around the turn, and it proved to be well deserved. Little Vic steadily pulled away in the stretch to win by 2 ¾ lengths.

Little Vic is trained by Juan Carlos Avila for Victoria’s Ranch and has 15 top three finishes in 26 starts with six stakes top three finishes.

The Stride Sales and Syndicate-bred 6-year-old is one of three winners from three to race out of the multiple stakes winning Rock and Glory. That mare is a sixth-generation stakes producer with each mare producing at least one stakes performer and five producing stakes winners.

Practical Joke has seen at least one of his runners win a stakes every weekend dating back to December 21 with multiple weekends seeing him register two stakes winners.