In an electrifying
display of speed, Discreetly Mine roared through an opening quarter-mile in
21.90 seconds and a half in 44.11 on his way to a 1 ¼-length victory in the 26th
running of the Grade 1, $250,000 King’s Bishop on Saturday afternoon at
Saratoga Race Course.
With trainer Todd Pletcher instructing jockey John Velazquez Jr. to take
the E. Paul Robsham Stables-owned
son of Mineshaft to the front, the colt maintained a comfortable margin
throughout and hit the wire in 1:23.16 for the first Grade 1 win of his career.
Late-running Bank Merger finished second and Latigo Shore
closed for third in the field of seven.
Discreetly Mine paid $4.10 for a $2 wager as the even-money favorite in
the field of seven, and with the victory now has a shot at year-end honors in
the sprint division.
“Any time you go 21, 44 and change for seven eighths, that's
pretty demanding,” Pletcher said after the race. “We were happy to
hold on. We basically felt like we had to (go for the lead) the way the track
was playing.”
After a 13th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Pletcher
retooled Discreetly Mine and brought him back as a sprinter in the Grade 2 seven-furlong
Woody Stephens in June at Belmont
Park. On that day, he
finished second to D’ Funnybone, who finished last in the King’s
Bishop, and Pletcher kept him at shorter distances.
The decision proved wise as Discreetly Mine subsequently won a Grade 3
stakes race at Monmouth and then blazed to an 8 ¾-length victory on August 2 in
the Grade 2 Amsterdam. In both of those races, Discreetly Mine came from off
the pace.
In the King’s Bishop, however, Velazquez sent Discreetly Mine to
the lead, beating the fleet Bulldogger to the front. Hounded by the Bob
Baffert-trained speedster, with Hurricane Ike close-up on the rail, Discreetly
Mine showed a whole new dimension to his game.
“The plan was, if he broke well, to let him go away from there
and let him do it,” Velazquez said. “He was going well all the way,
even though we were going pretty fast. I was hoping he’d be able to give
me something down the stretch, and he gave me everything he had.”
On the turn for home, the chasers fell away and Bank Merger rallied
from fifth and Latigo Shore from seventh at odds of 44-1.
After the race, Pletcher said he would give Discreetly Mine time off
and train him up to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“Twenty-six days [since winning the Grade 2 Amsterdam], 123
pounds – he’s spotting everyone but D’ Funnybone significant
weight, but he was gutsy enough to get it done.”
Hurricane Ike finished fourth, followed by In Jack’s Memory, Bulldogger
and D’ Funnybone.
Discreetly Mine has now won five times in 13 starts. The $150,000
first-place purse boosted his lifetime earnings to $799,350.