Maximum Security 'perfect' at the gate in Haskell 2019 prep
A stumble out of the gate cost Maximum Security last out in the TVG.com Pegasus Stakes, the only race in which a rival has clipped the wire before the Gary and Mary West homebred.
“I felt the break compromised (Maximum Security) a little bit,” trainer Jason Servis said. “We got beat, and we live to fight another day.”
Servis spoke Wednesday after Maximum Security drew the outside post in a seven-horse field for Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million TVG.com Haskell Invitational.
NBC will broadcast the 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds over Monmouth Park’s main track. Post time is 5:39 p.m. ET with Maximum Security the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Classic Division “Win and You’re In” challenge series event.
Other contenders include four-time Grade 3 winner Mucho Gusto (2-1) and King for a Day (5-2), the colt who beat Maximum Security on June 16 at Monmouth in the Pegasus.
Maximum Security put in his final pre-Haskell work Monday, open galloping a mile “in 1:53 and change,” Servis said.
The son of New Year's Day has also practiced in the starting gate after his stumble in the non-graded Pegasus.
Maximum Security recovered from a bad break that day to set the pace, as is his style. The toll those early moments took showed later though, as King for a Day had more left in his tank for the stretch run and drove by Maximum Security for a one-length score.
Servis noted Wednesday that Maximum Security will be the last horse to load for the Haskell.
“I had him back in the gate twice and he’s been perfect,” Servis said. “Like I said, I was glad to get that race out of the way. I’m not anticipating any problems in the gate.”
Maximum Security is looking for his first official victory since going gate-to-wire in Gulfstream Park’s Florida Derby (G1) on March 30.
After starting his career 4-for-4, he was infamously disqualified from first to 17th on May 4 in the Kentucky Derby, then defeated six weeks later by King for a Day in the Pegasus.
A Haskell victory Saturday would be Maximum Security’s second Grade 1 win of the year, making him the first in the 3-year-old male division to win two such events in 2019.
That would give the Servis trainee a leg up in a division that’s wide open heading into next month’s Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
“I think he’s a little better (coming into) this race than the Pegasus,” Servis said. “That Derby took a toll on him. He had to get past that, get (a race) out of the way.
“I think he’ll move forward a little bit off that last race. I hope he does.”