Wertheimer and Frere’s Colizeo outlasted Worldly
by a neck after a stretch-long battle to win the 13th running
of the $136,375 Northern Dancer (GIII) for 3-year-olds on Saturday afternoon at
Churchill Downs.
The
race was a near repeat of when the two colts met here last fall as 2-year-olds
in their third career starts with Worldly edging Colizeo by a nose.
This
time Colizeo, under Garrett Gomez, got the jump early on Worldly as he
led the field of six through fractions of :24.89, :49.19 with Worldly in
closest pursuit under Robby Albarado. At the three-eighths pole,
Albarado sent Worldly after Colizeo and the two raced as a team to the wire
with Colizeo proving best.
It
was the second victory in the Northern Dancer for Gomez as well as trainer Todd
Pletcher. The two teamed up to win the race in 2006 with High Cotton.
In
improving his record to 8-3-2-0, Colizeo ran the 1 1/16 miles on the fast main
track in 1:43.60. A homebred son of Distorted Humor out of the Dixieland Band
mare Colony Band, Colizeo’s victory was worth $83,707 and raised his bankroll
to $154,077.
Sent
off as the favorite, Colizeo returned $5.40, $3.80 and $2.80, Worldly paid $6
and $4 with Vow to Wager finishing two lengths back in third under Miguel
Mena and paying $4.20 to show. Completing the field in order were Max
Silverhammer, Prince Will I Am and Crider.
The
Northern Dancer trophy was presented by Steve Wolfson, owner of 1978
Triple Crown winner Affirmed.
NORTHERN DANCER
QUOTES
GARRETT
GOMEZ (jockey, COLIZEO, winner): “We
didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of pace in the race and he ran pretty
good like that the other day so ideally I wanted to ride him like I did the
other day. (Jockey) Robby’s (Albarado) horse (Worldly) kept coming on and I
thought I had him where I wanted. I asked mine for a little more and his horse
would come back and eyeball me again. I thought once I really asked my horse I
thought I would run away with it. I had a hard time doing that today. This was
a good test for the horse.”
TODD
PLETCHER (trainer, COLIZEO, winner):
“He set a nice easy pace up front and really showed he had some talent today.
We’ve taken our time with him and he’s run against some talented horses. If you
look at the allowance race at Gulfstream, he ran against the likes of Fly Down
and First Dude. He ran a good race and keeps taking a step forward after every
race. He has potential. We’ll see how he comes back and look at our options for
his next start.”
ROBBY
ALBARADO (jockey, WORLDLY, second):
“On the first turn I just got pinched back and squeezed.”