Stradivinsky gave his connections a quick return on their
investment with a gate-to-wire victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jaipur
at Belmont Park.
The 7-year-old gelding was an easy winner against claimers
at Gulfstream Park
on March 7 and at Arlington
Park on May 1, inspiring
trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. to claim the veteran for $50,000 when he posted
another sharp victory at Churchill Downs on May 27.
The 2-1 second choice in the Jaipur, Stradivinsky broke on
top and set an opening fraction of 22.49 as the even-money favorite Formidable,
who unseated Jose Lezcano at the start, ran loose between the pacesetter and
the rail. Stradivinsky opened on Formidable and the rest of the field on the
far turn, and was put to a drive inside the final furlong to score by 1 ¼
lengths as Yield Bogey rallied on the outside to finish second.
Neither Lezcano nor Formidable
were injured.
“[Stradivinsky] broke really, really well and I didn’t
realize that there was a loose horse until I saw him inside of me going to the
half-mile pole,” said winning jockey C.C. Lopez. “I said to myself, ‘well, I
can’t let him get in front of me because I don’t know where he’s going to go
after he gets in front of me.’ So, I pinched him a little bit to get him out of
there and from there my horse ran his eyeballs out, he really did.”
The son of Stravinsky improved his record to 13-2-5 from 32
starts and returned $6.90 for a $2 win wager. He covered the six furlongs on
the Inner Turf Course in 1:07.74.
“He loves running fresh, and C.C. [Lopez] gave him a great
ride,” said Dutrow. “I told C.C. to concentrate on getting him out of the gate.
This horse runs well with spacing, and he likes Churchill Downs, so we’ll run
him one more time and then point to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.”
Dubai Rainbow finished 2 ¾ lengths behind the winner in
third, with Our Friend Harvey, Perfect Officer, and Escrow Kid completing the
order of finish.
Owned by Michael Dubb, Jack
Mandato, and Bethlehem Stables LLC, Stradivinsky was bred in Florida by Live Oak Stud.