When Team Valor’s Went the Day Well finally found his best stride, he pulled alongside I’ll Have Another and then poked his head in front of that rival at Churchill Downs on Saturday. Unfortunately for the connections of the Austin Delaney-bred colt and everyone who had money riding on the 30-1 shot, that occurred about a sixteenth of a mile past the finish line of the Kentucky Derby.
Went the Day Well settled for fourth place behind I’ll Have Another, Bodemeister and Dullahan in one of the more contentious Derbies in recent history. Alpha, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, finished a non-threatening 12th, while Daddy Long Legs, the Coolmore representative, brought up the rear, eased across the finish line by Colm O’Donoghue behind all 19 rivals.
Went the Day Well collided with Prospective upon leaving the starting gate in the Derby and had to play catch up thereafter. Jockey John Velazquez maneuvered the colt inside and out, trying to find a clear path with which to take on the sure-to-be-retreating speedsters, only that opportunity didn’t present itself until midstretch.
“We didn’t break out of there well and it was screwed up from there on,” Velazquez said. “I was so far back, I couldn’t make up that much ground; no way, not on this kind of track, the way it is today.”
McLaughlin’s take on the 19-1 Alpha is that the colt left his race in the paddock.
“I felt like he was really hot and bothered,” McLaughlin said. “It’s tough on horses, the preliminary stuff. He was great in the gate, but he did get very hot in the paddock and he just ran dull. Not a good effort.”
As for Daddy Long Legs, sent off at 26-1, O’Donoghue suggested that his mount likes the kind of track on which he can hear his bones rattle.
“He broke really good from the gate and he traveled really well down to the six-furlong marker, but the surface was too slow for him,” O’Donoghue said. “In the lane, he was really backing off and they were coming around him, so when he wasn’t handling it, I wasn’t going to push him. He’s got a long year ahead.”
BELMONT PARK STAKES WIN
Benny Connaughton and Andrew O’Connor’s I’ll Stake U prevailed after a sustained rally that carried him to victory in the New York Stallion Stakes Times Square division at Belmont Park on Sunday. The 3-year-old New York-bred colt had done little to distinguish himself in a 10-race career, in which he had only a victory against maiden claimers at Parx. But the Derek Ryan trainee sat off a hot early pace and then reeled in the heavily favored Sportswriter inside the sixteenth pole to score by one-half length. Rosie Napravnik rode I’ll Stake U, which paid $13.20 to win.
John Haran and James Graham came up winners in Sunday’s second race at Arlington, but Graham wasn’t wearing the silks of Haran’s Eagle Valley Farm when he entered the winner’s circle. Graham was on Mr Num Num, which dead-heated with Haran’s Italian Breeze in this maiden special weight mile on the main track for Illinois-breds. Incredibly, both horses went off at the same odds (12.70-1) and each paid $13.60 to win in the half-a-loaf scenario.
Graham won two more races on the card in his return to the Chicago area. He scored with Mop Head ($3.60) in the fifth race and Gleam of Hope ($4.20) in the sixth.
Trainer Danny O’Callaghan and jockey David Moran teamed to win Woodbine’s fourth race on Saturday with Raymond Kong’s King Forester. The 3-year-old gelding made his racing debut a winning one as he rallied to take this maiden special weight sprint by almost a length. The win price came back a munificent $42.20.
THE PAST COMES ALIVE IN TAMPA
The weekend program at Tampa Bay Downs had a “blast from the past” aura about it. Michael Fennessy’s big moment came circa 1996 with Yank’s Music. He’s kept a low profile since then in Florida, but he won Saturday’s first race in Oldsmar with his 4-year-old homebred colt Binnsepent. This was the eighth career start for Binnsepent, who rallied under Ron Allen, Jr. and got up in the final strides to win by a neck. He paid $6.00 as the chalk.
Four races later at Tampa, Joe Hennessy had his turn in the winner’s circle when Polly Benson’s Happy Drunk reported home two lengths in front as the heavy favorite in a maiden claimer on the grass. Jose Lopez was aboard Happy Drunk, which returned $3.40 to win in his 10th try under silks.
Then, on Sunday, Noel Hickey showed that he still has a few tricks up his sleeves when his Tour Ireland pulled a $62.60 shocker in the sixth race, a grass mile for $16,000 claiming stock. Tour Ireland, a Hickey homebred, had this race won when straightening for home; the margin of victory was just over two lengths. Jorge Vargas rode the winner.
Another member of the aforementioned Benson clan came up a winner when Liam Benson’s Choral Society took the first race on the grass at the Meadowlands on Friday. The 3-year-old gelding had been runner-up in three of six starts at Tampa Bay Downs, but Derek Ryan found a winning spot in this maiden special weight mile that saw Choral Society and jockey Kendrick Carmouche reach the wire in front by one and one-half lengths. The win price was $7.40.
