Curly Jack pulls off a 10-1 upset in the Iroquois Stakes

Louisville, Ky.

It was not the easiest race to try and gauge the pace beforehand. The Grade 3, $300,000 Iroquois Stakes featured nine 2-year-olds with skimpy résumés and even skimpier samples of their work around two turns.

That was just fine Saturday for Curly Jack , his jockey Édgar Morales and his trainer Tom Amoss.

“It was a large enough field, and I wasn’t worried about someone stealing away,” Amoss said after Curly Jack (10-1) went four wide through the far turn to erase a 4 1/2-length gap on the way to a one-length victory. The upset at Churchill Downs came in the first points prep on the road to Kentucky Derby 2023.

“I was thinking to sit off the speed,” said Morales, who had ridden Curly Jack to a head loss in the Ellis Park Juvenile on Aug. 14. That seven-furlong race was the Good Magic colt’s longest before Saturday. “When I took him outside on the turn, it was game on, you know? He grabbed the bit and just took off. That worked out pretty good.”

The early speed shown by second choice Damon’s Mound (5-2) and heavy favorite Echo Again (3-5) burned out. After they set the early fractions of 23.53, 47.48 and 1:11.66 for six furlongs, they wilted. Damon’s Mound finished sixth, 10 lengths up the track. Echo Again was another four lengths back in seventh, making him the fifth favorite in the last six years to lose the Iroquois, none at odds longer than 11-10.

Curly Jack’s winning time was 1:45.62 for the 1 1/16 miles on a main track baked fast by the 85-degree, late-summer sunshine.

Although he might not have been able to guarantee a victory, Amoss was more confident about the early pace.

“There’s a lot of horses coming out of speed races,” said Amoss, who doubles as a TV analyst for Fox Sports and the New York Racing Association. “When you’re trying to figure out pace going two turns, you’ve got a lot of sprinters in the race. I think you can almost assure yourself that you’re going to get some pace up front. It unfolded like it looked like it would on paper.”

It was a pricey top five, all of whom got Derby qualifying points under the new system that rewards an extra horse in every prep in 2022-23. Honed (54-1) closed from last to finish second, a half-length ahead of third-place Jace’s Road (9-2). Hayes Strike (57-1) was a distant fourth, and Confidence Game (29-1) came in fifth.

“I had a feeling that maybe those two top sprinters (Damon’s Mound and Echo Again) would get a little bit of a tit-for-tat,” said Kenny McPeek, who trains Honed and Hayes Strike. “It sets it up for everybody else.”

Honed, who had raced only once before, looked every bit like a colt still trying to figure out what his job is. He was agitated early, weaving his way over the heels of horses ahead of him in the first turn. He settled down a little on the backstretch. Turning for home, he looked like he would take a good run at Curly Jack, but then he started to drift inward from the six path. With left-handed urging, jockey Julien Leparoux straightened him out, but then Honed went to the wrong lead in the last 60 yards.

“He was green, green, green,” McPeek said. “He was all over in the first turn. He was confused in the second turn. At the sixteenth he jumps off of his lead, or he wins, probably."

Jace’s Road stalked the early pace before he and jockey Florent Géroux retreated to 3 1/2 lengths back. When the leaders faded, they held their ground only to be passed by Curly Jack. Jace’s Road dug in in the deep stretch and just missed finishing second.

“I thought he was done at the three-eighths pole,” his trainer Brad Cox said. “He battled back really well. I thought it was a positive effort. I thought he showed us he wants to go long.”

Under Kentucky’s penny breakage, Curly Jack paid $23.66, $8.48 and $4.88; Honed $31.08 and $12.72; and Jace’s Road $3.74. A winning $2 exacta ticket was worth $754.06. The 50-cent trifecta paid $888.17. The dime superfecta returned $1,917.59.

For Morales, 23, a native of Puerto Rico, it was his first graded-stakes win after 21 losses – and 298 other wins.

“It has taken a while,” Morales said. “I have been able to win some stakes. No graded stakes. But I’m at least happy for everything that’s happening lately with kid coming soon."

Morales and his fiancée, Keely Sorrows, the daughter of former jockey Abner Sorrows Jr., are expecting their first child in March.

Curly Jack, a Good Magic colt who was bought as a yearling for $180,000 by Mike McLoughlin, most likely will be trained up to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4 at Keeneland.

“Curly Jack is borderline the right weight, maybe a little bit below the proper weight,” Amoss said. “We have plenty of time before the Breeders’ Cup. It’d be my recommendation to more than likely wait, as long as my owner is good with it.”

No horse ever has won both the Iroquois and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. And no Iroquois winner ever has won the Kentucky Derby. Dare to dream, yes. But Amoss was not biting.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Amoss said. “It’s a long, long time before the Kentucky Derby. I’m really pleased with the win. We’ll see where he takes us from here.”