Belmont at Big A: Clock Tower picks spot in Paradise Creek
Trainer Wesley Ward made the correct decision between three races for graded-stakes winner Clock Tower, who led each step of the way to capture Saturday’s listed, $150,000 Paradise Creek Stakes, a six-furlong, outer-turf sprint for 3-year-olds at Belmont at the Big A.
“I was really excited about that,” Ward said. “He is a really nice, honest and ultimately sound horse. Never had any issues since day 1. He is just a gem of a horse to train.”
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Owned by Fitri Hay, the gelded son of Not This Time was cross-entered in both the James W. Murphy last Saturday at Pimlico and the Grade 3 Penn Mile next Friday at Penn National. Ward opted for a trip to Aqueduct, where the talented, dark bay notched his second career stakes win after taking the Cecil B. DeMille (G3) as a 2-year-old in December at Del Mar.
“We were kind of looking to stay off soft turf,” Ward said. “We kind of rolled the dice today that it wouldn’t be too soft, and I guess it wasn’t. We had him cross-entered down in Maryland, and we opted for this one, because we thought that the grass was soft there. I also had him entered in Pennsylvania next Friday, because maybe it would be too soft today, but we rolled the dice, he was doing well, and it proved all right for us.”
In victory Ward captured his ninth race from 11 starts at Aqueduct this year with his other two runners finishing second and third. Among his wins were additional stakes scores in the John A. Nerud (G3) with Whatchatalkinabout, the Busanda with Running Away and the state-bred Broadway with Landed.
Clock Tower found the Paradise Creek winner’s circle with a pacesetting trip engineered by Junior Alvarado. The pair broke from post 5 of nine and swept past sharp-starting Warheart to mark the opening quarter-mile in 22.52 seconds over the good footing under pressure from Jet Sweep Joe to his outside.
Jet Sweep Joe crept closer up the backstretch and came to even terms with Clock Tower midway through the turn. Super Swift tried to advance up the rail, and Warheart spun his wheels in the three path through the half-mile in 45.66 seconds.
Clock Tower needed little urging in the lane to keep Jet Sweep Joe at bay, staying well clear at the eighth pole as 42-1 long shot Flat to Da Mat ducked down to the rail and put in a belated bid under Dylan Davis.
Insubordination made mild progress between rivals in the center of the course, but it was Clock Tower’s time to shine as he crossed the wire 1 1/2 lengths in front with a final time of 1:09.49. Flat to Da Mat held place by a neck over Insubordination with Jet Sweep Joe completing the superfecta. Assertiveness, Supersonic Blue, Warheart, Pivotal Moment and Super Swift completed the finish in that order.
Alvarado, aboard for the first time in the afternoon, said he did not anticipate setting the pace atop a horse who had not sprinted since a third in his five-furlong debut last May.
“I watched some of his races, and he’s been running long. I thought I was going to be maybe fourth or fifth. The way it looked on paper, there was a lot of speed there,” Alvarado said. “When he broke good, I let him go and find his rhythm, and I was kind of shocked that I ended up on the lead. I just had to keep going at that point, and he kept finding more for me.”
Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm, Clock Tower was a $100,000 purchase at the 2023 Keeneland September yearling sale and is out of graded-stakes-winning, New York-bred Bustin Stones mare Hot Stones. He banked $82,500 in victory while improving his lifetime record to 8: 3-1-2 and returning $9.30 on a $2 win bet.