FAIRBANKS son wins rich Commonwealth Derby-G2

Facing a Grade 1-winning favorite and making just his second start of the year, ONE GO ALL GO grabbed the lead at the start, set every fraction and then kept going, winning the $400,000 Commonwealth Derby-G2 at Laurel Park on Sept. 19, formerly run as the Virginia Derby, by a length. The 3-year-old son of FAIRBANKS trained by Pavel Matejka recorded his first stakes victory in the one and an eighth-mile turf feature and took home the $235,200 winner’s share of the purse for Preston Stables and Prestonwood Racing.

ONE GO ALL GO was stakes-placed last year at 2 when third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity-G3 in just his second start. The colt, bred in Virginia by Albert P. Coppola out of the Marquetry mare See Ashleigh Run, won his only other start of 2015, an allowance at Indiana Grand Race Course in August in his turf debut, but was disqualified and placed second for interference.

FAIRBANKS is the sire of four stakes horses in a four-week span from mid-August to mid-September. His stakes-winning 5-year-old daughter Vielsalm just missed in a thrilling finish in the All Brandy S. at Laurel on Aug. 22 and his 2-year-olds Gala’s Bank and Jeezum Jim hit the board in Delaware Park’s Small Wonder S. and First State Dash S., respectively, on Sept. 12.

Currently ranked sixth in the Mid-Atlantic on the leading sires list, with the fewest number of starters of the top six, FAIRBANKS has 11 stakes performers in his first four crops, five in 2015.