Knicks Go cruises to win at Prairie Meadows in Cornhusker
Making a class drop Friday night and getting back to a two-turn comfort zone, there was little doubt Knicks Go would outclass the field once he got started in the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap.
After taking the lead before the first turn, the three-time Grade 1 winner never gave it up. After Joel Rosario shook the reins at the top of the stretch, Knicks Go (3-5) ran away to an easy, 10 1/4-length triumph against open company in the 1 1/8-mile race on a fast main track in Iowa.
Owned by Korea Racing Authority and trained by Brad Cox, Knicks Go left pace-chasing Last Judgment (3-1) to finish a very distant second.
“The other horse looked like he was going to go the lead for a little bit,” Rosario told Prairie Meadows TV. “When (Knicks Go) found himself in the lead, the other horse decided to ease up a little bit, so I just took it from there.”
Knicks Go finished with a winning time of 1:47.33 off his pacesetting fractions of 23.33, 47.02, 1:10.77 and 1:35.06, the latter being a hundredth of a second better than the track record for a one-mile race.
“It was pretty easy,” Rosario said. “He did really well today. He always tries really hard, this horse.”
Rated R Superstar (17-1) made a late run to get third, missing second by a half-length. Never a factor, Tenfold (15-1) was another 12 lengths up the track in fourth. Dinar (52-1) was in mid-pack early before fading to fifth. After a poor start, Modernist (3-1) finished last in the field of six.
It was the first victory for Knicks Go in three starts, the last coming Jan. 23 in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1). The 5-year-old horse by Paynter was coming off consecutive fourth-place finishes in a pair of one-turn races – February's Saudi Cup (G1) and last month’s Met Mile (G1).
Since he was moved to Cox’s stable to start 2020, Knicks Go is 5-for-5 in two-turn races.
Curiously, for a horse with $4,833,995 in earnings, it was the first time Knicks Go won a stakes race other than a Grade 1. While he is 6: 3-1-0 at the top level, he was 10: 0-1-1 in lower-level stakes before Friday.
On Friday’s undercard at Prairie Meadows, Army Wife (1-1) made a late run in the stretch to win the Iowa Oaks (G3), and Stilleto Boy (16-1) led from gate to wire to win the Iowa Derby.