Stanford (and Speed) are King at the Charles Town Classic
Today’s Grade 2 Charles Town Classic was scheduled for nine furlongs, and that is what they ran, but for all intents and purposes, the race was over before the field of ten had hit the first of three turns. It was Stanford who went right to the lead, under his Eclipse Award winning rider, Javier Castellano, and that is where he would stay. Cruising down the Charles Town stretch, he never looked in danger, on his way to scoring a stylish two-length victory in the $1.25 million headliner.
Sent off as the 7-2 third choice, while breaking from the seven-post against a deep cast of handicap runners, the four-year-old son of Malibu Moon had the speed to take advantage of a racing surface that had been favoring speed all afternoon. While it was expected that the race favorite, Donworth would be the one to pressure him early, instead it was the six-year-old Mid-Atlantic star, Page McKenney who took up the task of applying the pressure to the early leader. Coming off a narrow loss in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap in his most recent race, the Todd Pletcher-trained Stanford is as sharp as he has ever been, and the task of chasing him today proved to be a most difficult task.
With Castellano deftly rationing the speed of Stanford through early fractions of :24.75 and :48.86, the fan favorite Page McKenney would not let him get too far away. Behind the leading pair, Sonny Inspired and S'marvelous were next in line, with several big names behind them. After a bit of a slow start, Donworth had clear sailing on the outside, but back in fifth, he was farther behind then his connections wanted him. Meanwhile, the 2014 champion, Imperative, was making his patented move on the backstretch to give himself a chance before heading into the final turn. But up front, Stanford was comfortable, and showing no signs of weakening after hitting the six furlongs in a leisurely 1:13.75.
The top two held their position into, and out of the far turn, with only Donworth looking like a possible threat. Sling-shotting into the short home stretch, Stanford opened up his lead on Page McKenney, while the favorite’s wide-trip rally began to fizzle. From there, only the winning margin was in question as the Stonestreet Stables owned runner streaked to, by far, his biggest victory to date.
Page McKenney easily held second, while Imperative’s late rally could not quite catch Donworth for third place money. For Imperative, this marked his third go in the Charles Town Classic, having also finished second in last year’s running behind Moreno.
In winning for the 4th time in 11 career starts, Stanford saw his lifetime earnings balloon up to $1,111,800. Racing’s newest millionaire completed the nine furlongs in 1:50.55 over the fast track at Charles Town. Two dollars to win on Stanford returned $9.40, while the $2 exacta over the 6-1 fourth choice returned a solid $66.40.
The winning rider marveled at his trip. “Fantastic trip,” said Castellano. “He broke very well and got to the position we hoped for going to the first turn. He was on cruise control from there.”
After finishing second in his last three tries in graded stakes company, today’s win points out Stanford as a still improving colt, and one that could be a real player in the older male division. As for what is next for today’s impressive winner, his trainer mentioned a big race on Belmont Stakes Day as a possibililty. “No firm plans from here, but we might consider the Met Mile,” said Pletcher.
As for Page McKenney, the six-year-old Pennsylvania-bred may have had his four-race winning streak broken, but there is absolutely no shame in that. In his second try in the Charles Town Classic, he finished third last year, it was another outstanding performance for the hard-trying Mary Eppler-conditioned gelding.