Tell Your Daddy (pink silk) leads the four-in-hand Bernard Baruch Feld into the track on the way to a half-length win under John Velazquez
Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez sent Flying P Stables Tell Your Daddy to the top and the Scat Daddy Wallach didn’t give up the lead, scoring a half-length gate-to-wire win in Class 2, $ 200,000 for Bernard Baruch 3 year olds and up on Monday, the final day of summer, meet at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, NY
In the 63rd edition of Bernard Baruch, which was contested over 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon lawn course, En Wye Cee was the favorite and the early speed threat En Wye Cee after an early afternoon rainstorm. Tell Your Daddy, who ran the same distance behind Flavius in Fasig-Tipton bait in Saratoga on August 7, moved forward after a break from the inside post and led the four-horse field through an opening quarter mile in 24.92 one and a half Seconds in 50.75 over a yielding course.
Tell Your Daddy, Off at 5-2, kept the edge out of the corner while No Word gave chase down the track on the track. But Tell Your Daddy carried on under Velazquez’s right-handed encouragement, parrying No Word to take his first ever stakes win in 1: 44.61 and his first win in his last 13 starts.
“It [the lack of other pace] made the difference today, ”Velazquez. “Last time he ran a winning race and a good race, but the other horse that day [Flavius] went to the top and kept running. Today our plan was to go to the top and hope to stop the other horses, and that’s what he did. “
Tell Your Daddy, whose previous win was scored against the grant company at Fair Grounds in February 2020, returned $ 7.90 for a $ 2 winning bet. He improved his career record to 4-4-2 in 24 starts.
“We wanted to try to take the lead anyway, but [En Wye Cee] Coming out was a big help as we thought we could handle it, ”said coach Tom Morley. “I didn’t want to give Johnny instructions, but Jay did [Jason Provenzano, owner Flying P Stables] and I’d talked about it the last time he rode it [second in the Lure], I would like to see what he could do at the front in one of these races.
“En Wye Cee’s coming out probably helped our cause too and it’s a pliable turf pitch and difficult to close,” added Morley. “I was very skeptical about how he would handle this floor. It ran very well on very fast surfaces, but it has a certain shape on flexible grass. “
Morley claimed Tell Your Daddy for $ 40,000 for fourth place on January 28th at the Fair Grounds. Since getting into his barn, the five-year-old has earned the black guy on three of his five starts, including a third place finish at the 1-mile Seek Again in May at Belmont Park, before scooping consecutive placements on the board during the Saratoga- Meeting.
“We were looking for horses with real back class and that horse did a huge race at Shakertown in Keeneland [finishing sixth in 2020]”Said Morley. “He ended up flying five and a half in a very good shakertown and was beaten a length [1 1/2 lengths]. I called Jay and said, ‘If we can get this horse to Belmont and go six or seven or a mile in one turn, he’s already won two and sixteenth races.’ So that was our plan. We started at seven and went up to a mile and then we came here and went a mile and a sixteenth mile and Johnny said, ‘I think he’ll go further.’ So it worked out great and it was great to see him get his head forward. He’s fought some big defeats for us, but that was massive. “
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Velazquez, who has the most jockey wins of all time in Saratoga, took the mount at Tell Your Daddy for the first time in the Fasig-Tipton Lure in his best finish in a stakes to date, before having himself photographed for the Bernhard Baruch.
“The lawn is soft. Expect the rain we just got, ”said Velazquez. “I was a little worried. I checked out its soft lawn and gave in to the shape of the lawn and it was fine. But you just never know. If he ran on soft grass, then in shorter races. The two rounds helped him today too. “
No Word, ridden by Manny Franco, surpassed the 3-5 favorites L’Imperator by a length for second place. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who was also supposed to saddle En Wye Cee before scratching him, No Word started No Word for only the second time in its 4-year campaign after finishing at 6th Spa after a nine-month hiatus.
“The pace was slow, but at the same time I wanted to give my horse a chance,” said Franco. “I know the other horse [L’Imperator] was the favorite so i wanted to give a nice trip. I did that and it went well. “
L’Imperator, trained by Chad Brown, who took the H. Allen Jerkens title for most wins by a dresser at the Saratoga meeting, was third 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Dreams of Tomorrow.
The live race returns on Thursday, September 16, on the opening day of the 28-day fall get-together at Belmont Park, with the $ 150,000 Lonesome Glory, a 2 1/2 mile obstacle course handicap for 4-year-olds and older.
The Fall Meet at Belmont Park, which runs Thursday September 16 through Sunday October 31, features five Class 1 races and five Win and You’re In qualifiers for the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar in November.
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