Hieronymus holds off Pixelate to take the Black Gold Stakes

Away alertly, Godolphin LLC’s 2-5 favorite Hieronymus took command from the word go, set moderate fractions, and then held off the late closing rally of Pixelate to take the $75,000 Black Gold Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots by three-quarters of a length. It was the third consecutive local turf win for Hieronymus, who stopped the timer in 1:45.97 for the about 1 1/6th miles distance over a firm turf course. It was a half-length back to 3-1 second choice Bodecream, who checked in third in the field of five.

After holding off 33-1 shot Bodecream to win a first-level allowance race in late December at odds of 12-1, trainer Brad Cox stepped the 3-year-old son of Girolamo up to stakes company. Bet down to even-money in the locally run Randy Romero Memorial Stakes, Hieronymus made his stakes debut a winning one, dominating four others with a 9 ¾ length margin of victory.

Now a two-time stakes winner, Hieronymus owns a career record of 5-4-0-0 with earnings of $136,714.

“He’s such a trying horse and he just always seems to get there” winning jockey Shaun Bridgmohan said. “They came at him and my horse just kept digging in and giving me his all. He’s a really gutsy horse.”

“He’s a tough horse,” trainer Brad Cox said. “When he turns for home and turns it on he’s hard to beat.”

“He definitely deserves an opportunity against graded company in the near future,” Cox said of a potential run in the Transylvania Stakes (G3) at Keeneland (April 3, $150,000, 1 1/16th miles turf) and/or the American Turf (G2) at Churchill Downs (May 2, $500,000, 1 1/16th miles turf). “We will keep those two races on our radar. We’ll gather our thoughts in the next couple of days and come up with a plan.”

Pixelate, making his first start since finishing third behind Bodecream in the $200,000 Texas Turf Mile in January at Sam Houston, closed with a rush and gave Hieronymus all he could handle in the final sixteenth, only to fall just short.

“Going into the race we wanted to be a little closer than he was last time,” jockey Mitchell Murrill said of the Texas Turf Mile, a race in which he closed from 12 lengths back. “I had him right where I wanted him to be and when it was time to move, we went outside and he gave me a few good spurts to get up near the lead, but every time we came up to Hieronymus, he just kept getting away from us.”