Imperative and Loooch Racing dominate the Charles Town Classic

Loooch Racing Stable took dead aim at the $1,250,000 Charles Town Classic (G2) when they sent three horses to the post and they succeeded as Imperative rallied down the middle of the stretch to win with his stablemate War Story finishing third.

Seven-year-old Imperative was running in the West Virginia track’s signature event for the fourth time in his career. The gelded son of Bernardini won the Classic in 2014, last year he finished fourth, and in 2015 he got second place. Imperative became only the second horse to win the Charles Town Classic twice; Researcher did it in 2009 and 2010, the first two years of this race.

Ron Paolucci, who runs Loooch Racing from his Ohio base, entered Cautious Giant in the race to make sure that there was going to be a fast early pace to set up the closing runs of Imperative and War Story. The strategy worked perfectly as Cautious Giant flew out of the gate to set the early fractions with the 3-5 odds-on favorite and last year’s winner, Stanford, in close pursuit.

Cautious Giant led for the first half mile of this three-turn nine furlong stake that is run on the six-furlong bull ring. The fractions of 23.43 and 47.38 were quick. Stanford chased first on the rail and then was switched to the two-path by John Velazquez when they came down the grandstand stretch for the first time. In the early running Matt King Coal was stalking in third position. Meanwhile, Imperative sat in sixth place at the most six lengths behind.

By the time six furlongs was complete, Cautious Giant had done his job and began to fade and eventually finished last in the field of eight. At that point Stanford inherited the lead with Matt King Coal was just a head behind, but Stanford had been softened up by the Loooch Racing rabbit.

Once again Eclipse Award winning jockey Javier Castellano was in the right place at the right time. Today, Castellano was riding Imperative for the first time even though last year he won this race with Stanford. Velazquez has been in the saddle of Stanford in his last four races.

Castellano had Imperative on the move going very wide around the final turn and they drove with determination down the middle of the stretch. In the end the margin of victory was a neck over Matt King Coal who in turn was a neck ahead of War Story. The final time was 1:53.05 over a very sloppy Charles Town track.

Castellano won the CT Classic for the third time. In addition to Imperative and Stanford, he won in 2012 on Caixa Eletronica. Each of the Loooch runners had a different trainer today with Imperative under the care of Robert Hess, Jr.

Hess described the victory, “Plenty of pace. We had a smooth trip. I thought we might be in trouble going into the far turn and I thought he was really wide but I didn’t know how much horse he had left.  Javier found that extra gear and when he got to the front, he might have hung a touch but then kind of surged again, so it was exciting, very exciting.”

For their efforts, the first and third place Loooch Racing runners brought home $826,800 of the $1.25 million purse. Imperative upped his career record to 38: 6-8-3 with earnings of now over three million at $3,144,135. Imperative was able to bounce back from a very poor last place performance in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 11.

Imperative was sent off as the fourth betting choice at 5-1 and returned $12.00, 4.80, and 5.00 across the board. The exotic wagers were generous when Stanford finished in fifth place. Matt King Coal completed a $2 exacta of an even $100 and with War Story in third, the $2 trifecta paid $425.

Paoluuci talked about the plans for Imperative, “The big key for him is getting him away from California. It’s hard. It’s not a good surface for him to train on.  He runs there on all heart.  I think we’re going to have a good campaign with him this summer out here on the east coast and I think if you look at every race he’s run outside of California, it’s been dynamite. We’re thinking about the Met Mile. Giving him a little time in between. Looks like there would be a lot of speed in that race. But we’ll see. That’s the initial plan."