Normally a stalker, Redeemed surprised 10 other
runners by going right to the front and galloping around virtually unchallenged
Friday to win the 124th running of the Grade 2, $200,000 Brooklyn
Handicap at Belmont Park.
Ridden by Ramon Dominguez for Jay Em Ess Stable and trainer Richard
Dutrow, Jr., the 4-year-old son of Include turned back a mild challenge from
the 2009 Brooklyn winner Eldaafer and widened
through the stretch to a 10-length victory.
The winner covered the 1 ½-mile Brooklyn
in 2:28.89 and paid $6.50 for a $2 win bet as the 2-to-1 favorite.
Eldaafer, racing in his fourth straight Brooklyn to tie a record held
by the great gelding Forego, held for second at 26-1, followed by
Arthur’s Tale.
As a 3-year-old, Redeemed won five of seven starts, including the Grade
3 Discovery at Aqueduct and the $400,000 Oklahoma Derby.
“He’s been running with good horses, and he’s been
showing up,” Dutrow said. “I don’t know what’s next in
store for him, but we’re going to have to stay after the big races.
I’ll have a talk with Ramon and see if he wants to go this far all the
time; we’ll get the numbers, check things out, but we have a live horse,
that’s for sure.”
Dominguez said he was very impressed.
“We don’t run these distances daily, but I couldn’t
be any happier with how well he relaxed for me,” said Dominguez, the
two-time defending Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s top jockey.
“I felt like I definitely had horse.”
With the victory, Redeemed now has won seven of his 12 career starts
and earned $712,140.
In the Grade 3, $150,000 Jaipur Stakes, the 5-year-old gelding Upgrade,
from the lone crop of 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam, found an open path at
the top of the lane and won the seven-furlong turf sprint by three-quarters of
a length over 2011 Jaipur winner Right One.
Owned by Dennis Narlinger and ridden by John Velazquez, Upgrade won for
the second time in two starts since being transferred into the barn of trainer Michelle Nihei.
“This horse has really deserved this from the day he walked into
the barn,” said Nihei, who saddled Upgrade to a fifth-place finish in the
two-turn Grade 3 Fort Marcy in his most recent start. “It’s been a
little bit of a roller coaster with that last race. The stretch-out was a
little bit too long for him.
“We’ll take a breath, come out of this race and look for
something appealing at Saratoga and look for a path that looks obvious between
now and [the Breeders’ Cup] in November. Mike Narlinger [the son of the
owner] really wants to see him run 6 ½ furlongs down hill at Santa Anita in
November.”
Upgrade ran the Jaipur in 1:21.25 seconds on a firm turf course and
paid $12 for a $2 win bet as the 5-1 third choice in the field of six.
The victory, his fifth in 17 career starts, increased his lifetime
earnings to $283,456.