Messi scores in the Knickerbocker

Despite dawdling early fractions, Messi uncorked a powerful late rally to score by a nose in Saturday's Grade 3 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park.

After an awkward break, and a very disappointing seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at 1 ½ miles at Saratoga last time, the German-bred’s crafty trainer, Graham Motion, believed shortening up Messi to the nine furlongs of the Knickerbocker would be a better fit. It was, but for much of today's $200,000 turf feature, it looked like the cut-back distance might be a little too short for the five-year-old gelded son of New Approach.

Piloted by Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez, Messi eased back to the rear of the pack as the 34-1 longshot, Cage Fighter led the deep field of nine through all the early fractions. With rider Joshua Navarro judiciously reserving his mount’s energy while on the lead, the longest shot on the board carved out fractions of :25.38, :50.38, and 1:14.06.

While the rest of the Knickerbocker field waited for Cage Fighter to come back to the pack, as his odds suggested he should, a funny thing happened in early stretch. The longshot turned it on and kicked clear of his nearest competitors; the race favorite, War Dancer, and the defending Knickerbocker champion, Legendary. His job was not quite complete, though

Even though the leader was now sprinting home to the wire with plenty of horse left in reserve, Messi was picking them up and laying them down on the far outside. Last for much of the race, Messi collared the potential upsetter two strides short of the wire, and despite that it was only a nose margin on the line, you could tell that the impressive rally had proved successful.

"When he ran for the first time at Belmont he was last at the quarter pole and he came running," said Velazquez. "Going a little shorter today I was a little worried about it, but they were going so slow and he was pulling all the way to the half-mile pole. I got stopped at the half-mile pole and I thought it would be hard not to let him go and catch up. It took him a little bit to get going, but once he switched [leads] down the lane I thought he was going to get there. It was little by little, but he had a nice kick coming home."

While Messi was nailing Cage Fighter on the wire for the win, Grade 1 winner Mr Speaker rallied up for the show position, a length and a quarter ahead of the fourth-place finishing, and 2014 Knickerbocker winner, Legendary.

With the victory, the Gestut Brummerhof bred and owned Messi raised his lifetime record to 16-5-5-0. The Knickerbocker was his first stakes win in America, although Messi has been a bit of a revelation since debuting in the States. Other than the debacle behind Flintshire in the Sword Dancer, he is perfect in three starts for Motion, having won impressively in two allowance races, in his first two starts this year.

Final time for the 1 1/8 miles on the grass was 1:49.70. As the 4-1 third choice in the betting, Messi returned $10.20 for a $2 win bet. The exacta on top of Cage Fighter returned a robust $324 to those lucky enough to have the 2-11 combination.

With an initial stakes win under his belt, look for bigger and better things from this gelding in the future. The way he won today was something only good horses do.