Protonico Surges to Win the Alysheba by a Head
With a head-bobbing victory in the $400,000 Alysheba (G2), Protonico will up in the ranks of the Older Male Dirt division. Coming to the wire jockey John Velazquez had just enough to get Protonico’s head in front of the 19-1 long shot Noble Bird.
The morning line viewed the Alysheba as a two-horse race between Protonico and Honor Code. Protonico was coming to Churchill Downs off of an easy front running victory in the Ben Ali (G3) at Keeneland. Honor Code had won the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) with a visually impressive closing effort from fifteen lengths behind. The bettors ended up making Protonico the 7-5 favorite.
The race began with Den’s Legacy on the lead closest to the rail, Protonico was in second outside of the leader, and Noble Bird was third just off the hip of Protonico. The trio set a steady pace and stayed just like that for the first three quarters of the race in fractions of :23.94, :48.56, and 1:12.88.
Meanwhile Honor Code would drop far back, to almost 12 lengths behind the leader. At Gulfstream Honor Code got an early fraction of 1:10 to run at, but the much slower pace today made it far tougher for this son of A .P. Indy to gain ground. Going to the gate Honor Code looked a bit washed out and in the end he could only manage a distant fifth place finish.
Honor Code’s rider Javier Castellano felt his horse did not take to the Churchill surface, "I got the kick but I think I blame it on the track a little bit. Unfortunately the track is kind of loose a little bit and horses have to like it. I don't think he liked it very much today."
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Going around the final turn the Den’s Legacy began to fade and Protonico inherited the lead while Noble Bird moved to challenge him. Heading down the stretch Noble Bird got his head in front, but Velazquez was ready and urged the Todd Pletcher trainee to make his winning move in the final yards.
Velazquez described his trip, “He's game. (Trainer) Todd (Pletcher) told me before the race, if he's laying behind somebody, when he passes, he's going to wait. And that's exactly what he did. As soon as he passed the horse who was on the lead (Den's Legacy), now he waited. And now he has the other horse on the outside (Noble Bird). The other horse passed him. Now he realized he had a horse next to him, and then he started running back. (Noble Bird) got a good neck (on Protonico). It was hard to come back, but eventually he did it.”
For Velazquez the win today is his third in the Alysheba having previous victories with Congrats in 2004 and Limehouse in 2005. For Pletcher this is his second Alysheba win, having teamed up with Johnny V. in 2005.
Over $1,000,000 was bet to win on the Alysheba, which went as race eight on the Friday Kentucky Oaks undercard. Protonico improved his career record to 10: 6-1-1 with earnings of $828,587. To the bettors he returned $4.80, $3.40, $2.60 and with Honor Code off the board the $2 exacta with Noble Bird paid $68.20.