BENSALEM, Pa. – When Javier Castellano jumped off The Puma following his fourth-place finish in the Travers Stakes three weeks ago at Saratoga, the first thing he told trainer Gustavo Delgado was that he should add blinkers to the colt\u2019s equipment.<\/p>\n
Castellano felt The Puma ran spotty in the Travers, in which he was beaten 3 1\/4 lengths by Leading Change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to put on blinkers, I think he\u2019s going to move forward to the next level,\u201d Castellano said.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it pays to listen to a Hall of Fame jockey.<\/p>\n
Delgado did listen and in Saturday\u2019s Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing, The Puma, equipped with blinkers for the first time, made an eye-catching move around the far turn to open up a three-length lead in midstretch. The Puma had just enough to hold off a late-running Further Ado to win by a half-length. It was another 3 1\/2 lengths back to Sassmaster in third.<\/p>\n
Our Moneyman finished fourth, 9 3\/4 lengths in front of Igniter. Talk to Me Jimmy, Iron Honor, Freedom\u2019s Echo, Micanopy and Ponder and Dream completed the order of finish. Zinhal scratched.<\/p>\n
It was The Puma\u2019s first win since he defeated Further Ado by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby six months ago. In between, The Puma got beat a nose by Commandment in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, was scratched from the Kentucky Derby the morning of the race due to inflammation in a hock and finished fourth in both the Haskell and Travers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery trainer, every owner would like to win a G1, it\u2019s better for all the people, for all the partners, it\u2019s very good,\u201d Delgado said.<\/p>\n
The Puma had run his best race in the Florida Derby, three weeks after the Tampa Bay Derby. So, coming back in three weeks in the Pennsylvania Derby after the Travers was not an issue provided the horse trained well in between, which he did.<\/p>\n
Castellano said it was by design that he moved when he did, letting The Puma roll from seventh to first from the three-eighths pole to just before the quarter pole. The last horse he passed, Sassmaster, couldn\u2019t keep up with The Puma in the stretch, but Further Ado, who had saved all the ground under Flavien Prat, came late, but the wire came first.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal was to move premature, when the horses start backing up, try to move quicker earlier and try to get the jump on the other horses and try to get to the finish line and get it done and that\u2019s exactly what I did,\u201d said Castellano, who won his third Pennsylvania Derby. \u201cHe was always in the bridle with the blinkers, when I asked him, he gave it to me right away. At some point, I said \u2018Oh my God, you moved too early Javier\u2019 but he felt good, he\u2019s happy and it was a great performance. He waited for horses, that\u2019s the reason I switched my stick and hit him left-handed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delgado said he was confident when Castellano made the move he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Javier moved to the front, I say \u2018he wins,\u2019 ” Delgado said.<\/p>\n
The Puma, a son of Essential Quality, covered the 1 1\/8 miles in 1:49.10 and returned $7.40 as the second choice. He is owned in a partnership that includes OGMA Investments, High Step Racing, TCC Stables, YNG Stables and JR Ranch. The Puma ran in the turquoise and orange silks of High Step Racing, the operation of Randy Guy, for the first time since the Tampa Bay Derby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kentucky Derby scratch was definitely a gut punch,\u201d Guy said. \u201cBut I thought he ran good races in his last two races even though he was fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delgado said he would ship The Puma back to Saratoga, where he has been training since July 19 and, with the partners, come up with a plan to get to the Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.<\/p>\n
Further Ado, the 2-1 Pennsylvania Derby favorite, was getting a ground-saving trip under Prat, but when Castellano made his move, Prat had to wait before he was able to go after him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winner opened up when I was in between horses so I had to wait a bit and he gave me a good run,\u201d Prat said. \u201cI honestly thought turning for home I was good enough to go by him but he just kept grinding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sassmaster, trained by Todd Pletcher, was making his stakes debut after winning a 1 1\/8-mile allowance race at Saratoga on Aug. 1. He did well to finish third, beaten just two lengths, after attending the early, albeit moderate pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got to the top of the stretch, when he made the lead, he just got a little bit lost,\u201d jockey Tyler Gaffalione said. \u201cThen Javier put a little bit of pressure on and he got a little intimidated in there. After they got away from him, he re-engaged to go back after them. I was very impressed with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF’s Handicapping 101<\/a> and Wagering 101<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BENSALEM, Pa. – When Javier Castellano jumped off The Puma following his fourth-place finish in the Travers Stakes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120395,85195,28,109496,30,29,116730],"class_list":["post-290011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-further-ado","tag-parx-racing","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-derby","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-the-puma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}