Saturday, July 17, 2010
STRADIVINSKY CONTINUES HOT STREAK IN JAIPUR
By Jon Forbes
The 7-year-old gelding was an easy winner against claimers at
The 2-1 second choice in the Jaipur, Stradivinsky broke on top and set an opening fraction of 22.49 as the even-money favorite Formidable, who unseated Jose Lezcano at the start, ran loose between the pacesetter and the rail. Stradivinsky opened on Formidable and the rest of the field on the far turn, and was put to a drive inside the final furlong to score by 1 ¼ lengths as Yield Bogey rallied on the outside to finish second.
Neither Lezcano nor Formidable were injured.
"[Stradivinsky] broke really, really well and I didn't realize that there was a loose horse until I saw him inside of me going to the half-mile pole," said winning jockey C.C. Lopez. "I said to myself, 'well, I can't let him get in front of me because I don't know where he's going to go after he gets in front of me.' So, I pinched him a little bit to get him out of there and from there my horse ran his eyeballs out, he really did."
The son of Stravinsky improved his record to 13-2-5 from 32 starts and returned $6.90 for a $2 win wager. He covered the six furlongs on the Inner Turf Course in 1:07.74.
"He loves running fresh, and C.C. [Lopez] gave him a great ride," said Dutrow. "I told C.C. to concentrate on getting him out of the gate. This horse runs well with spacing, and he likes Churchill Downs, so we'll run him one more time and then point to the Breeders' Cup Sprint."
Dubai Rainbow finished 2 ¾ lengths behind the winner in third, with Our Friend Harvey, Perfect Officer, and Escrow Kid completing the order of finish.
Owned by Michael Dubb, Jack Mandato, and Bethlehem Stables LLC, Stradivinsky was bred in
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