Zindaya wins back-to-back editions of the Intercontinental

Favored Zindaya successfully defended her title in the $150,000 Intercontinental on Thursday at Belmont Park, swinging widest of all into the stretch and drawing clear to a 3 ½-length victory over Rumble Doll to wrap up the stakes action on opening day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

It was the first victory of the year for Zindaya, who finished second to Lady Shipman in the License Fee on May 1 in her 5-year-old debut and first start for trainer Chad Brown.

On Thursday, under a confident ride from Javier Castellano, Zindaya stayed just off fractions of 24.39 and 48.86 seconds set by Shrinking Violet and Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, then angled out to the four-path and accelerated through the stretch to take over for good approaching the eighth pole.

Her winning time for seven furlongs over the "good" Widener turf course was 1:22.44.

"I had the best horse in the race," said Castellano. "The confidence payed off. The way we handicapped the race, there were all the horses that we thought were going to come from behind.

"My horse had speed today but I wanted to cover her up and find the best rhythm and that's exactly what I did," he added. "The pace was slow, 24 and change, 48 and change so I had to step up a little bit outside to find the last kick. With that pace, you don't see too many horses do that. When I asked her she took off unbelievably."

The even-money favorite, Zindaya returned $4.10 for a $2 win bet and earned $87,000 for e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, extending her earnings to $391,240. Overall, her record is 5-3-2 from 12 starts including victories in the 2015 editions of the Intercontinental and the License Fee.

"I've just had her [she was previously trained by Christophe Clement, sold for $550,000 at Keeneland sale and transferred to Brown] for this season, but she seems to have settled as she's gotten older," said Brown. "We've been trying to get her to relax and have plans to stretch her out [to one mile] down the road. She's been a work in progress, but she's switching off nicely now [from having to be on the lead]. I thought Javier executed our plan perfectly."

Miss Ella checked in third, followed by Notte d'Oro, Unbridled Courage, Mississippi Delta, Shrinking Violet and DIstored Beauty. La Berma and Rapid Rhythm were scratched.

Day 2 of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival continues Friday with six stakes races: the $150,000 Rags to Riches Invitational, the $200,000 Tremont, the $150,000 Jersey Girl, the Grade 2, $250,000 True North, the Grade 2, $500,000 New York and the $300,000 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational.

Saturday features 10 stakes races, highlighted by the 148th running of the Grade 1, $15 million Belmont Stakes.

Source: NYRA Communications (Jenny Kellner)