What was already a short field turned into a four horse affair after the morning scratches of Cause of Freedom and Center Divider. Left to contest the mile and a half G2 Pan American Stakes for four-year olds and upward on turf at Gulfstream Park were Newsdad, Simmard, Hailstone, and Harrods Creek.
Sent off as the odds-on favorite, the William Mott trained Newsdad broke well and took up position at the back of the four horse field, with two lengths covering them all. Newsdad was eager to run at the break, but jockey Julien Leparoux took a hard hold in order to keep his mount from using himself up too soon. The Arch colt fought the restraint but settled nicely by the first turn and had plenty left in the tank come time to really run. Mott's other entrant, Harrods Creek, went out to set the pace, cruising through reasonable fractions of 25:03 for the opening quarter, 49:05 for the first half, and 1:37.04 for the mile, fractions more appropriate to this race's distance than the similar fractions set by In Lingerie in the 1 mile G3 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway Park. Harrods Creek maintained the lead for a good chunk of the race, but the Roger Attfield trained Simmard briefly gained the lead with a quarter mile to go. Newsdad inched up on the final turn, took over entering the stretch, and opened up a length and half lead. The final margin of victory for the son of Arch was two lengths. Hailstone got up just in time to steal the place from Simmard, who had to settle for third. Pacesetter Harrods Creek finished last, roughly 11 1/2 lengths behind the winner.
Today's victory was the first graded stakes win in seven tries for the nicely bred dark bay colt whose pedigree includes two Triple Crown winners. Newsdad also exacted revenge of sorts since he finished second by a nose to Simmard last out in the G2 Mac Diarmida Stakes, also run at Gulfstream Park. Overall the win made him 4 for 15 with career earnings of $323,140.