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Another encore try for Musicinthehouse

CHESTER – In the most recent effort by Musicinthehouse at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort, he registered his most lucrative victory to date – prevailing by 1 lengths in the $85,000 Sophomore Sprint Championship on Nov. 12. It was his third win in four career tries on the Mountaineer dirt oval.

On Saturday’s opening night card, Musicinthehouse will attempt another encore performance. The 4-year-old gelding is the 3-1 second choice in the morning line for Mountaineer’s feature race, the $37,100 Welcome Back Dash.

A field of nine is scheduled to go in the five-furlong event, and Musicinthehouse has drawn the outside post. His overall career record includes 17 starts, four victories, a half-dozen placings and purse earnings of $110,563.

Musicinthehouse has never finished worse than second at Mountaineer, and 78.6 percent of his bankroll (including a $52,360 paycheck for his sprint championship triumph) has been garnered at the upper panhandle track.

The Sprint Championship win by Musicinthehouse was achieved at long-shot odds of nearly 10-1. He’ll undoubtedly receive more play in Saturday’s pari-mutuel pools. He will be ridden again by Albin Jimenez (22), who led the jockey standings with 19 wins at the recently concluded Holiday Meet at Turfway Park.

Maria E. Pinzon bred, owns and trains Musicinthehouse. She has been conditioning Thoroughbreds since 2001, and through Tuesday has accumulated 129 career wins. To date, Musicinthehouse has provided Pinzon with her only stakes victory.

“I’ve got a farm in Paris, Ky., (near Lexington), but Musicinthehouse is an Indiana-bred,” Pinzon said. “I also owned and trained Robbin’s Music,” who is the dam of Musicinthehouse, and a granddaughter of one of North America’s most prominent 20th-century sires, Mr. Prospector.

But the parentage of Musicinthehouse also reveals some interesting West Virginia connections. His sire, Limehouse, was six times a stakes winner. Four of those triumphs came in graded company, at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/8 miles.

Limehouse now does stud duty for a $3,500 live foal fee at O’Sullivan Farms near Charles Town. The aggregate earnings of his sons and daughters exceeded $2.75 million in 2013, making him the leading sire in the state.

During her own racing days, Robbin’s Music made career 35 starts, from which she gained five wins. Two of those scores were achieved in claiming company at Mountaineer, at the six-furlong and one-mile distances. Both were front-running achievements.

Most of the recorded workouts by Musicinthehouse occur over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky.

But his success racing there has been moderate – six starts, one win, a pair of placings. At Mountaineer. Musicinthehouse has won on surfaces rated fast, good and muddy. He’s more formidable on the dirt.

He also does better when Jimenez is aboard. The latter has partnered Musicinthehouse in six races, and the results have included three wins and a pair of placings. And they are undefeated as a team at Mountaineer.

A graduate of the Laffit Pincay Jr. Training Academy at Presidente Ramon Racetrack in his native Peru, Jimenez has displayed signs of being a rising star. He has won multiple stakes at Turfway and River Downs. His recent Turfway performance resulted in his first career riding title.

Jimenez deserves a good long look on Saturday, when he has mounts in four of Mountaineer’s nine races, including one of the favorites in the feature.

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