War Correspondent Makes the Grade in Appleton

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ War Correspondent got up in the final strides to capture the first stakes win of his career in Saturday’s $150,000 Appleton (G3) at Gulfstream Park.

The 5-year-old son of War Front produced a furious rally in the stretch to just edge the front-running Aripeka by a neck. The final time for the mile race was 1:34.81.

“He’s improved with every race,” trainer Christophe Clement said of War Correspondent, whom he acquired from Europe last summer. “He’s a very consistent horse. He’s fun to train. We’ve been lucky in this race before, which is nice. We’ll go back to New York with him, we’ll see how he comes out of this before we make any plans.”

Under John Velazquez, War Correspondent settled in mid-pack early, as Aripeka, flanked by Excaper, slowed the pace down, setting early fractions of 23.95 seconds for a quarter mile and 47.84 for a half. Entering the stretch, Aripeka appeared to have plenty left in the tank, and the gelding began to separate himself from the field, but a rallying War Correspondent split horses and narrowed the gap with every stride. He got the lead when it counted most: at the wire.

"It seemed like he was getting there little by little, but once I got to the sixteenth pole, I was almost sure that I'd get there,” Velazquez said. “I talked to (trainer Christophe Clement) before the race and he said, 'Do what you want, put him where you are comfortable.' He said he could come from behind or run close to the pace. I thought I would try to put him a little closer to the pace. I watched the replay of his last race and it looked like it took him a little while to get going. I think by being a little bit closer I wouldn't have to work as hard to get there today."

“I think he got a great ride from Johnny (Velazquez),” added Clement, who also won the 2013 Appleton with Za Aproval. “I wasn’t sure he was going to get there. I guess that’s the reason Johnny is a Hall of Fame jockey.”

War Correspondent, a full brother to multiple Group 1 winner Declaration of War, has yet to finish off the board in four starts in North America, winning his stateside debut and earning graded stakes placings in the Autumn (G2) at Woodbine and Gulfstream Park Turf (G1) on Feb. 7. He has now won 4 of 8 lifetime starts; the victory pushed his career earnings to $225,189.

The Appleton was the sixth race of a Florida Derby card at Gulfstream that includes eight stakes, seven of them graded, highlighted by the $1 million Besilu Stables Florida Derby (G1).

War Correspondent paid $4.40 to win, while Aripeka returned $7.00 to place. Grand Tito finished ¾-length back in third, paying $2.60 to show. Dramedy, Mr. Online, Excaper, Lochte, and Breitling Flyer completed the order of finish.