After breaking in full stride to take immediate control of the 30th anniversary edition of the Arlington Million, Priscilla Vaccarezza’s Kentucky-based Little Mike made the pace throughout and withstood a late surge by Darley Stud Management’s European-based Afsare to save the day for the America’s equine team in the last of the four races that now make up Arlington’s International Festival of Racing.
European-based horses won the $750,000 Beverly D., $500,000
Secretariat Stakes and $400,000 American St. Leger earlier in the
afternoon.
Ridden by Eclipse Award-winning jockey Ramon
Dominguez, who won the 2009 Million aboard Castleton Lyons’ Gio Ponti,
Dominguez accomplished early splits of 25.10, 49.95, 1:15.03, and
1:39.54 before getting the Million’s mile and a quarter distance in
2:02.44 over a turf course listed as “good.” Little Mike’s margin of
victory was a length and a half.
“He was running very
comfortable,” said Dominguez after the race. “Turning for home when I
decided to let him run, he beautifully started opening up. I wasn’t
sure how slow we were going. I got him to the three-eighths pole and he
started to open it up. I tried to slow him down (early), but (for the
rest of the way) I was going to let him spring home. He galloped home
like a freight train.”
As the co-second choice in the wagering,
the Dale Romans-trained Little Mike paid mutuels of $9.80, $5.60 and
$4.40. He increased his earnings to $1,436,412.
In his last trip
to the post before the Million, Little Mike traveled to the west coast
to finish third in Hollywood’s Grade I Shoemaker Mile, but before that
he won Churchill’s Grade I Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on Kentucky
Derby Day – traditionally the first prep race on the road to the
Arlington Million. Other Turf Classic-Million doubles came in 2002 with
Beat Hollow, 1996 with Mecke, 1994 with Paradise Creek and 1987 with
Manila.
With his Arlington Million win, Little Mike and his
connections are able to take advantage of the Breeders’ Cup World
Championships’ “Win and You’re In” format, receiving an automatic
starting berth in the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 3
British-bred
Afsare, who was his reported usual fractious self before between loaded
in the gate for the Million, was far back early, rallied boldly in the
late stages and got up to be clearly second best in the final furlong,
finishing a length and a half in front of Robert Courtney Jr.’s
Rahystrada and Darley Stud Management’s Irish-bred Colombian, who
dead-heated for third.
Afsare returned $6.60 and $4.80 as the
runner up, and Rahystrada and Colombian returned $4.40 and $3.80
respectively for finishing on even terms for the show spot. Crackerjack
King, Treasure Beach, Wigmore Hall, Willcox Inn, Boisterous, Cherokee
Lord and Vertiformer completed the order of finish.
“I knew what
was happening (with eventual winner Little Mike setting a slow pace).
But there was nothing I could do about it,” said Afsare’s rider Kieren
Fallon. “I had to ride my horse to win, and there was nothing I could
do. I had to ride my horse to win, and there was no pace. His antics
(rearing before the start) didn’t cost him. He just acts like a spoiled
child sometimes and didn’t want the gate.”
