The Withers was Far From Over
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El Kabeir was
sent off as the overwhelming 1-2 favorite in the
Withers (G3), but the race was far from over as a horse with that
very same name swept from last to first to win the race. After stumbling badly
at the start,
Far From Over was able
to rally from a very distance last place to overtake El Kabeir and in doing so
stayed unbeaten in two starts and took home his first 10
Kentucky Derby 2015 qualifying points.
Far From Over is a son of Blame, who sold for $550,000 as a
yearling at Keeneland. The Todd Pletcher trainee broke his maiden going two
turns on the inner track at Aqueduct in December. Looking at that maiden
victory, it would have been expected that Far From Over would again run close to
the lead, but the bad start may have actually won him the race.
Pletcher assistant Byron Hughes talked about how everything
changed at the break, "I thought
we were in trouble when, coming out of the gate, he stumbled. But Manny did a
great job relaxing on him and making his move at the right time. It was one big
move at the end, and it was perfect. Ideally we were trying to sit right off
the pace, hopefully, right there on the rail, but that didn't happen. I saw
they were going :48 and I thought that wasn't fast enough. He had an awesome
turn of foot and got up in time. In his first race he was on the lead, so we
didn't know, but Todd was saying he was training great in Florida."
While Far From Over was having difficulty at the gate,
Classy Class and El Kabeir broke smartly and went right to the front of the
field. After a quarter mile the two of them would battle head to head with
Classy Class on the rail and El Kabeir to the outside. The leaders set moderate
fractions of :24.40, :47.95, and 1:12.01 and turned for home in tandem.
In the meantime Far From Over was dawdling at the back of
the pack still 9 ½ lengths behind after three quarters of a mile. At that point, jockey Manuel Franco guided him closer to the rail and began to close the gap.
At the top of the stretch he was within a few lengths and Franco moved back to
the middle of track as he prepared to go by El Kabeir and Classy Class.
While El Kabeir was struggling to get by Classy Class, Far
From Over was just that, and easily went by to win by 1 ¾ lengths earning Franco
his very first graded stakes victory.
Franco commented, "He
had a bad step coming out of the gate and the game plan changed after that. I
just let him go however he wanted to go comfortable. At the three-eighths pole
I picked it up and went for the lead. I thought I would be able to get there
[and win]."
El Kabeir’s trainer
John Terranova had this to say after the disappointing second place finish, “The
race set up good for him; he was in a perfect spot and did everything right,
and as far as I can tell right now. He just got beat. Looking ahead, we'll see
how he comes out of this, talk it over with the Zayat family."
Far From Over, who
was sent off as the third betting choice paid $14.40, $4.20, $2.60 and earned $150,000
for the owners from Black Rock Thoroughbreds.
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