Camelot Kitten claws his way to victory in the Pennine Ridge
The 9-5 favorite Camelot Kitten came from off the pace to win the $200,000 Pennine Ridge (G3), which was run on the Belmont Park turf as a prep race for the July 9th $1,250,000 Belmont Derby (G1).
It was not hard for the betting public to make Camelot Kitten their choice considering that he is a son of the prolific turf sire Kitten’s Joy and, who like his sire, is owned and was bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey. Throw in that Chad Brown, the master of the turf, was the trainer and that his top rider Irad Ortiz was in the saddle and the 9-5 odds don’t sound that bad.
The race was named for Pennine Ridge, who won the 1994 Hill Prince (G3) and Jamaica (G2) as a three-year-old at Belmont Park. In his career the son of Cure the Blues started 49 times and found the winner’s circle nine times.
This nine-furlong stake was a run on the inner turf course, which tends to be more kind to horses that are forwardly placed. Thus, Hammer’s Vision was gunned to the lead from his inside post and 99-1 shot Toughest ‘Ombre went right after him from the nine post. Those two were head and head a couple lengths ahead the rest of the field after the first quarter went in 23.02.
Dylan Davis, on the big longshot, was clearly trying to steal the race on the front end and he pushed his mount to open up a big lead. After the half-mile went in 47.90, the lead was 3 ½ lengths, which eventually built to more than four over Hammer’s Vision. After three-quarters Toughest ‘Ombre was beginning to fade and the closers, including Camelot Kitten, Call Provision, and Highland Sky were making their move.
However, Toughest ‘Ombre, who had gotten brave on the lead and had saved all the ground on the rail, hung on gamely as four horses battled to the wire all within a length of each other. In the end Ortiz got the victory by a neck over Highland Sky. The show spot went to Call Provision who was also a neck ahead of Toughest ‘Ombre.
After the race Brown said of his winner, "Camelot Kitten ran great. He got a terrific trip on the inside saving all the ground. Irad worked out a beautiful trip with the horse. He's now 2-for-2 with blinkers and he's a horse that's starting to figure it all out.”
Call Provision was making only his second career start in the Pennine Ridge and Brown said, “Call Provision ran great. At certain points of the race, I loved him. When they were going for home I thought he had nothing, and then when he felt Camelot Kitten come through Jose told me he reengaged on the bit and ran again. Call Provision showed a lot of inexperience today. That he has the ability to be barely beaten in the race but the fact that he was more or less on and off the bit from the three-eighths pole shows inexperience but that he has a bright future."
Camelot Kitten backed up his May 7th victory in the American Turf (G2) at Churchill Downs and upped his career earnings to $398,250 and his record to 6: 3-2-0, all of which have been on the grass. He paid $5.80, $3.00, and $2.50 across the board.