Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm\u2019s Locked got up in the final jumps to collar pacesetter Phileas Fogg and capture Saturday\u2019s Grade 2, $300,000 Woodward, a nine-furlong route for 3-year-olds and up, at Belmont at the Big A.<\/p>\n
The Woodward scratched down to a three-horse field after Willy D\u2019s opted to run in the Grade 2 Lukas Classic today at Churchill Downs, while the trio of Awesome Aaron, Film Star and Gould\u2019s Gold are entered in Sunday\u2019s Battery Park at Delaware Park.<\/p>\n
Locked, boasting Hall of Fame connections of trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez, stalked from second position as the Kendrick Carmouche-piloted Phileas Fogg showed the way while well off the rail through splits of 24.89 seconds, 48.69 and 1:12.03 over the fast main track.<\/p>\n
Post Time advanced to the outside of a scrubbed-on Locked into the final turn as Phileas Fogg maintained a 1 1\/2-length advantage at the stretch call.\u00a0Post Time spun his wheels in upper stretch and a rail-running Locked seemed unable to make up ground on the frontrunner until tipped to the outside inside the final sixteenth. Phileas Fogg dug in gamely, but Locked would not be denied the three-quarter-length victory in a final time of 1:48.11. It was 3 1\/2-lengths back to Post Time in third.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a three-horse race, so you have to change everything when it\u2019s three horses. It\u2019s about if the horse will allow you to do what you want to do,\u201d Velazquez said. \u201cHe allowed me to [do] whatever I wanted to do, and I know Kendrick, he\u2019s a smart guy. He\u2019s going to park me over there, so I think I\u2019m going to be inside and whenever he sees me, he\u2019s going to come back in. He rode a really good race because he waited until past the three-sixteenths pole to the eighth pole to see me and then come in. Once I got out, I was close enough that I was going to be there to come out and my horse responded right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locked, a 4-year-old Gun Runner chestnut, is a dual Grade 1-winner with scores in the 2023 Breeders\u2019 Futurity at Keeneland and the Santa Anita Handicap in March. He completed his sophomore season in December here with an impressive score in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile Handicap.<\/p>\n
Locked, who was making his first start since finishing third to the victorious Phileas Fogg in the\u00a0Grade 2 Suburban presented by Subourbon on July 4 at Saratoga, provided\u00a0Pletcher a standalone record sixth Woodward win after previous victories with Lawyer Ron [2007], Quality Road [2010], Liam\u2019s Map [2015], Life Is Good [2022] and Tapit Trice [2024].<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased. He’s an honest, hard-trying horse,\u201d said Pletcher assistant Stu Hampson. \u201cHe has an affinity for this track. By all accounts, this horse was back in old form in Saratoga when breezing. Today, when Johnny [Velazquez] put him in the clear, he did what we were hoping he’d do.<\/p>\n
“It was a tricky race [with three horses]. We can’t control what we can’t control,\u201d Hampson added. \u201cThe pace scenario today was one of those things, but we knew this horse was doing great. He likes this track and we had a Hall of Famer in the saddle, and thankfully we ended up on the right end today.”<\/p>\n
Carmouche said the Gustavo Rodriguez-trained Phileas Fogg was valiant in defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerfect trip. Perfect fractions, just got run down. No excuse,\u201d Carmouche said. \u201cI thought Locked was a horse that not getting the kickback in his face [would mean] he\u2019d run a little better. I figured that much. He could have stayed a little closer to me, but I\u2019m not getting the dirt kicked into his face and I said, \u2018that\u2019s going to be the determination the last quarter of a mile.\u2019 As you can see, he came back clean, and that\u2019s the one that ran me down. My horse ran his heart out, just second best today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bred in Kentucky by Rosa Colasanti, Locked banked $165,000\u00a0in victory while improving his record to 11-6-1-3. He returned $4.46 for a $2 win bet as the 6-5 second choice. A $425,000 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale,\u00a0Locked\u00a0is out of the winning Malibu Moon mare\u00a0Luna\u00a0Rosa, a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winners\u00a0Gabby\u2019s Golden Gal and Always a Princess.<\/p>\n
Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont at the Big A with a nine-race card featuring the $150,000 Gio Ponti in Race 8. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.\ufeff<\/p>\n
America\u2019s Day at the Races\u00a0will present live coverage and analysis of the Belmont at the Big A fall meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.nyra.com\/aqueduct\/racing\/tv-schedule\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont at the Big A, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at\u00a0www.NYRABets.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm\u2019s Locked got up in the final jumps to collar pacesetter Phileas Fogg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-164513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}