Cox colt Salute the Stars edges Kingsbarns in Haskell prep
Oceanport, N. J.
Three-year-olds in the Brad Cox barn are expected to win stakes races and that is just what Salute the Stars did when he beat the 1-2 favorite Kingsbarns in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
The 1 1/16-mile Pegasus was the local prep race for the Haskell Stakes on July 22 and was part of the card on the Haskell Preview Day.
Click here for Monmouth Park entries and results.
Salute the Stars joined the Cox barn for his three-year-old campaign after making his first two starts last year for trainer John Ortiz. He broke his maiden in his second start on the turf at Ellis Park in August.
The son of Candy Ride was bred by the owners Gary and Mary West and made his first start of the year a month ago in an allowance at Churchill Downs, but they didn’t know if he would take to racing on the dirt.
“We liked him a lot first time out,” Trace Messina, Cox’s Monmouth assistant, explained. “We were going back and forth - dirt or turf - and we're like, you know, let's just run on the grass. Then the race came off the turf, so it gave us an option to see what he was like on the dirt. Not against true dirt horses but it was a competitive field that day. He proved that he's a true dirt horse today.”
Kingsbarns was last seen in the Kentucky Derby where he finished fourteenth. He won his first three starts for trainer Todd Pletcher including the Louisiana Derby (G2). Kingsbarns came into the Pegasus with only two timed workouts.
When the race started Kingsbarns was pressing the pace set by the sprinter Subrogate who was going two turns for the first time. Salute the Stars got banged around leaving the gate and was rank while pulling hard against rider Joel Rosario.
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The pace was fast as Howgreatisnate joined the front runners and the trio raced together into the stretch. The fractions were 23.71 and 47.60 seconds, and 1:11.87 for six furlongs. Meanwhile Rosario got Salute the Stars to relax once they got to the backstretch, but he was 4 1/2 lengths behind at the stretch call.
“I tried to get him settled,” Rosario said. “Turning for home he put it all together and was able to grind it out and he got it. It was really close.”
Kingsbarns was urged by Luis Saez and won the battle of the pace setters taking the leading by the sixteenth pole as Howgreatisnate dropped back.
“He ran his race,” Saez described. “He broke from there pretty nice. There was speed in the race. We came to the straight and I thought I was going to win but we just got beat. He probably needed the race.”
At the wire the winner’s margin for Salute the Stars was a neck. As the 5-2 second choice he paid $7.80, 3.00, and $2.20. The $2 exacta with the favorite returned $18.80. The 10-1 Howgreatisnate finished 2 ¼ lengths behind and completed a $2 trifecta that paid $62.80.
The Cox barn could win the Haskell for the third year in a row, having collected the last two with Cyberknife and Mandaloun.
“Hopefully, we'll see,” Messina said about Salute the Stars running in the Haskell. “No, obviously that's an option. We have a lot of three-year-olds in this division right now, so we'll see. But it's a possibility for sure.”