Bessie’s Boy runs them off their feet in the Tremont
Fans at Belmont Park today were treated to a twilight racing card highlighted by the $100,000 Tremont Stakes. Off the racing schedule for a few years, the historically significant Tremont has celebrated such stars as Man O’ War, Sarazen, Hail to Reason, Buckpasser, Bold Forbes, Alydar, Gulch, and Hansel over the years. Whether or not this year’s rendition will see anything close to that kind of talent is highly unlikely, but what we we did see was an inexpensive bay gelding run away and hide in impressive fashion, when Bessie’s Boy zipped home a six-length winner in New York’s first juvenile stakes race of the year for the boys.
Bessie's Boy was sent off as the 2-1 second choice in the compact field of four after a victorious career debut back on April 17 at Pimlico. He only won three-quarters of a length that day, but take note from that race, Governmentshutdown, who lost the photo for second, has since come back to win twice, including an easy win in the Rollicking Stakes at Pimlico. In his maiden win, Bessie’s Boy had been content to stalk the early pace. Today at Belmont, he went right to the early lead.
Breaking sharply under John Velazquez, Bessie's Boy took the lead immediately ahead of recent 18-length winner, Shrewd Move, and continued on top through solid early fractions. Chocolate Wildcat made a menacing move at the top of the lane, and it briefly looked like it could be a battle to the wire, but Velazquez was still sitting chilly on the Wesley Ward trained charge. Asked outside the eighth pole, Bessie’s Boy quickly put away his rival, and extended his margin every stride to the wire. Final time for the 5 ½ furlongs over the fast track was racehorse time of 1:03.89.
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Owned by Ice Wine Stable, Bessi’s Boy was purchased by $15,500 as a weanling. A Pennsylvania-bred with speed on both sides of his pedigree, he is sired by Smoke Glacken, and was produced by the allowance winning Meadowlake mare, Rey Lake. Winning rider, John Velazquez spoke about the easy stakes win after the race.
"I just broke and held on,” said Velazquez. “We were expecting that somebody was going to go to the lead and I tried to put him behind horses. I couldn't put him behind horses, so I just let him do whatever he wanted to do after that. Pretty easy."
Pretty easy indeed. It’s hard to say how far Bessie’s Boy will carry his early speed, but at the very least, it appears that trainer Wesley Ward has another good sprinter in this precocious bay gelding.
Today was not to be for the race favorite, meanwhile, as Chocolate Wildcat, who was bet down to 9-10 after a sharp 4 ½ furlong win at Gulfstream Park for trainer, Jason Servis, and owner-breeder Dennis Drazin was left behind by the winner. The son of Wildcat Heir overcame trouble to take his shot at the top of the stretch, but had no answers for Bessie’s Boy from there on, and was only able to hold on to a half-length margin for second over first-time starter King Rontos at the wire.