Saginaw reaffirmed his
status as the winningest horse in New York this year on Saturday
afternoon at Aqueduct Racetrack, outdueling Royal Currier through the
stretch to take the 54
th
running of the Gravesend Handicap and notch his 10
th victory of 2012.
With Junior Alvarado in
the irons, the 6-year-old gelding tracked Royal Currier through opening
fractions of 23.37 and 45.83 seconds before drawing alongside the
pacesetter and prevailing by a length after a
stretch-long duel.
“He’s a class horse,
and when I asked him he gave it all to me,” said Alvarado of Saginaw,
who completed six furlongs in 1:09.40. “It was pretty much easy at the
end. When we turned for home, I knew how much
horse I had. [Royal Currier] was still trying, but I had plenty of
horse left.”
Claimed for $30,000 in
March by trainer David Jacobson and Drawing Away Stable, the 6-year-old
gelding has won nine of 11 races for his current connections, including
victories over fellow New York-breds in the
Carr Heaven, Affirmed Success, John Morrissey, Promenade All and
Fourstars Allstar Stakes.
“That was a legitimate
horse he beat [Royal Currier]; Linda [Rice] always does a great job,”
said Jacobson. “They ran really fast. I’m happy to see he can compete in
open company now. The only other time he did
was in May [sixth in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap].”
With the winner’s share of the $75,000 purse,
Saginaw
has earned $507,650 in 2012. Overall, he is 16-6-2 from 34 lifetime
starts and has bankrolled $739,190. He returned $3.10 for a $2 win bet
as the 1-2 favorite.
Royal Currier was three lengths ahead of Isn’t He Perfect, with 2011
Gravesend winner Frazil completing the order of finish. Broad Rule and Hillswick were scratched.
Currently tied with
Clean Jean and Winning Dubai with the highest number of wins in North
America this year, Saginaw will be back to try for victory No. 11 on
December 26 at the Big A when he returns to state-bred
company in the $75,000 Alex M. Robb.
“We’ll definitely be back for the Alex M. Robb, provided he comes back OK,” said Jacobson. “He’ll let us know.”