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Hightail made a late move along the rail to nip favorite Merit Man at the wire to win the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint. Merit Man set moderate to fast fractions of 22.41 and 45.94 but lack the final kick to put away his rivals. There was stewards inquiry following the race but no changes were made to the order of finish.
Super Ninety Nine scratched from the field the morning of the race due to an injury. South Floyd, a colt owned by Rick Pitino, scratched after the post parade and prior to loading into the gate, reducing the field to just five colts and fillies.
Merit Man took most of the betting action in the run-up to post time trading at odds of approximately 4/5 the entire time but went off at odds of 1/2 after the late scratch.
Hightail is a two-year-old son of Mineshaft out of a Storm Cat mare (Stormy Renee), trained by D. Wayne Lukas and ridden by Rajiv Maragh.
| Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint | |||
| Horse | Win | Place | Show |
| 1-Hightail | $32.80 | $7.20 | $3.40 |
| 3-Merit Man | $2.40 | $3.10 | |
| 7-Sweet Shirley Mae | $2.40 | ||
| Base | Bet | Combo | Payout | Pays to - |
| $1.00 | Exacta | 1-3 | $25.30 | |
| $0.50 | Trifecta | 1-3-7 | $30.45 | |
| $0.10 | Superfecta | 1-3-7-8 | $16.18 | |
| $2.00 | Double | 5/1 | $376.00 | |
| $0.50 | Pick 3 | 7/5/4 | $148.55 | 3-of-3 |
| $0.50 | Pick 3 | 7/5/1 | $8.70 | 3-of-3 |
| Fractions | Internal Splits | |||
| 1/4: | 22.41 | 1/4: | 22.41 | |
| 1/2: | 45.94 | 1/2: | 23.53 | |
| Finish: | 69.75 | Finish: | 23.81 | |