He Hate Me barrels down the stretch to take Tremont

He Hate Me barreled down the middle of the stretch to take command in the final yards and win the 120th edition of the $150,000 Tremont for 2-year-olds at Belmont Park on Friday, the second day of the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival presented by NYRA Bets.

With Ricardo Santana, Jr. aboard, the bay son of Algorithms settled in midpack, running comfortably in fourth as Direct Dial and Salmanazar duked it out through opening fractions of 22.09 and 45.56. Once straightened away for home, He Hate Me hit his best stride in midstretch, grabbing the lead at the sixteenth pole and crossing the line 3 1/4 lengths in front of Direct Dial.

His winning time for the 5 ½ furlongs was 1:04.47.

"This is a really nice horse," said Santana, who with the victory scored his first stakes win in New York. "The first time he ran, he broke bad and he still won the race. He's a class horse. Today, when he broke, he was closer than the last time. At the three-eighths [pole], I just tapped him on the shoulder, and I then just waited. Turning for home, I took him to the outside and the second that he saw he was in the clear, he took off running again."

The victory was the second in as many starts for He Hate Me, who is owned by Kevin Plank's Sagamore Farm and trained by Horacio DePaz. He Hate Me broke his maiden two weeks ago at Pimlico Race Course.

"Obviously, this is kind of his style: to make a run," said DePaz. "In his first race, he lost his marbles in the post parade; he was hollering. They loaded them in the gate. He broke, and he didn't leave which he'd never done in the morning. So that's why we were bringing him back in two weeks. We're hoping that running him will mature him, but once he's running, he's really professional. We got lucky today. We'll probably go to Saratoga with him and try to keep him campaigning."

He Hate Me returned $13.80 for a $2 win bet and earned $87,000.

Direct Dial held off Admiral Jimmy by a nose for second, with Analyze Your Luck 1 ¼ lengths back in fourth. Completing the order of finish were Analyze the Odds, Presence of Mind, favored Salmanazar and Wonder How.

 

Source: NYRA Communications (Jenny Kellner)