World Approval Gets a Grade One in the United Nations
In the $300,000 United Nations (G1), World Approval sat a perfect stalking trip just behind the long shot pacesetter and pulled away to, what turned out to be, an easy 1 ¼ length victory. Florent Geroux was in the saddle for the first time on this Mark Casse trained son of Northern Afleet while his regular rider Julien Leparoux was at Woodbine riding the winner of the Queen’s Plate.
World Approval notched his first grade one victory after finishing third in the Manhattan (G1) at Belmont Park behind Flintshire and second to Divisidero in the Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs. Team Casse now has a male grass star to go with their powerful duo of female turf runners, Tepin and Catch a Glimpse.
World Approval had to prove that he could win in grade one company and that he could handle the mile and three-eighths distance while facing a field that was loaded with talent including three starters from New York trainer Chad Brown, amongst them was the 9-5 favorite Wake Forest, the winner of the Man O’ War (G1) at Belmont.
Out of the gate, it was 75-1 shot Cement Clement who would jump out to the lead, move to the rail, and set the early pace in the race. Geroux was happy to sit in second place a length or so behind the frontrunner. Money Multiplier and Noble Road traded positions while running in third and fourth. Early on Wake Forest and jockey John Velazquez were content to sit in eighth position.
It was clear that Geroux was not worried about the long shot on the lead even with slow fractions of 24.29, 50.21, and 1:14.72. After a mile, World Approval had cut the margin to a half-length and by the time the field passed the quarter pole, he had no trouble taking the lead. Cement Clement faded to finish ninth, Noble Road ended up tenth and last, Money Multiplier was game and took second place money for Chad Brown.
After the race Geroux said, “We sat the perfect trip. On paper it looked like the two horse [Cement Clement] would be going to the lead, so we let him set the pace for us. The only question was whether he could go that far since this was his first time going that much distance, but he showed he can do it and he did it well. When I asked him at the quarter pole he responded nicely.”
Wake Forest was able to advance from the back of the pack and appeared to be ready to make a big move on the leaders, but as the field turned for home, this Brown runner did not have his usual closing move and flattened out down the stretch and could muster only enough to finish third, three lengths behind World Approval.
Velazquez explained his third place finish, “We know he doesn’t break. Everyone started to slow down on the first turn and when we got to the wire for the first time, I got him comfortable. On the second turn, two horses backed up on me and I went around them on the backstretch. When we came back around, he just didn’t have it.”
The United Nations, which was originally run at the Atlantic City Race Course, is one of two grade one races that remain at Monmouth Park along with the Haskell Invitational to be run on July 31st. The past two years the winner of the U. N. has gone on to earn the division Championship for Top Male Turf Horse with Big Blue Kitten in 2015 and Main Sequence in 2014.
This is the sixth career victory for World Approval, who is owned and was bred in Florida by Live Oak Plantation. The gray gelding’s career record now stands at 13: 6-2-2 with earnings of $843,700. Sent off at odds of 2.70-1, the winner paid $7.40, 3.80, and 2.80 across the board.