Zhukova soundly beats the boys in the Man O’ War
European trainer Dermot Weld, who had not won a race in North America since 2009, was victorious today, as the five-year-old mare Zhukova soundly beat the boys in the $400,000 Man O’War (G1) at Belmont Park. Sent to the gate as the odds-on (.90-1) favorite, the Irish-bred daughter of Fastnet Rock, sprinted away from her four competitors to win easily by six lengths.
The Man O’ War was run on the Belmont inner turf course after the New York area had received heavy rain all day long. As a result the course was classified as YIELDING and was as wet as a grass track is ever raced on in the United States. That certainly played to Zhukova’s favor as she had run all of her nine career races on tracks that were not fast. Two of her victories came against male counterparts on tracks that were heavy and good.
The mile and three-eighths Man O’ War, which was the first grade one event of the year at Belmont Park, produced the slowest time since the race was switched to its current distance in 1978. Zhukova broke very alertly from the starting gate and settled into second place in the two-path a length behind the early leader, Charming Kitten. The other three runners jockeyed for position another length or so behind Zhukova. The fractions were extremely slow on the soggy turf: 27.47, 56.45, and 1:24.16 for six furlongs.
As the field ran at the leisurely pace around the turn little had changed, but it was clear that jockey John Velazquez had a ton of horse as he and Zhukova waited to make their move at the top of the stretch. When Johnny V. asked the classy mare to run, she exploded away from the boys to win the race in very convincing fashion. Although the final time of 2:25.31 was very slow, Zhukova ran the final three furlongs in 23.61 and 12.01.
For Velazquez. the victory was his third in the Man O’ War having won last year on Wake Forest and in 2013 on Boisterous. Of the win on Zhukova, Johnny V. said, "She gives you so much confidence. She broke well and there wasn't much speed in the race. They told me she likes to be close to the pace and with no pace at all I knew she was going to break great and be right there. She handled the grass really well and coming from Europe you could tell she was used to this type of surface. When I asked her to run down the lane she had another gear."
Weld, who had not had a winner in his 18 prior starts in North America, picked up his 14th career victory here in the states. Of the wins, 11 have been in graded stakes with five of them being grade ones. Weld won the 1990 Belmont Stakes with Go and Go, the 2000 Pennsylvania Derby with Pine Dance, and the 2008 Secretariat with Winchester to just name a few.
At the windows, Zhukova returned $3.80, 3.40, 2.40 across the board. With second place finisher, Taghleeb, the $2 exacta paid $28.20. Sadler’s Joy completed the trifecta for a $2 payoff of $82.00.
Zhukova, who raced for the first time with the medication Lasix, upped her career record to 10: 7-0-0, and her earnings increased to $479,310.
Mark Weld, the son of Dermot, had the post-race comments, "We're absolutely over the moon with that. It was a major target over the last few weeks. The rain came, which was a huge help. Johnny [Velazquez] was very complimentary about her. He said she could have a future here. She'll come home now but the [Grade 1 Breeders' Cup] Fillies & Mare Turf would be a definite possibility to finish off the year. We have the [Group 1] Yorkshire Oaks in August. We won the Grade 1 now - so she can have a free pass for the rest of the year."