Wicked Strong became Centennial Farms newest millionaire earner on Saturday when he held off Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist and won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. He now has career earnings of $1,244,610 and a record of 3-1-1 out of nine lifetime starts.
From The BloodHorse Online:
After the race Jimmy Jerkens said, “This is great. This is really great. The way he works in the morning, I don’t think Secretariat worked any better than this horse does in the morning,” he said. “I know the talent’s there. It’s just getting him to put it all together.”
Jerkens decided to shake things up a bit, adding a slight blinker. The addition had its desired effect as Wicked Strong showed speed while pressing the pacesetting Legend on the outside before taking the lead leaving the turn for home. Tonalist, ridden by Joel Rosario, presented a formidable challenge in the drive, but Wicked Strong took command in the final furlong to win impressively.
Wicked Strong, who drew the outside post in the field of six, was sweating heavily heading to the post but that was not unusual for the high-strung colt, Jerkens noted.
“We basically had cheaters, just enough to keep him focused,” said Jerkens after his first Jim Dandy win. “They did exactly what we wanted.”
As for Wicked Strong’s pre-race appearance, the trainer added, “He’s always like that. It’s gotten to the point I’d worry if he didn’t sweat. He’s been doing that since he was a 2-year-old.”
“Rajiv took him a couple of horse widths out when he saw Tonalist coming and that discourages a horse that’s coming up from behind you, too,” noted Jerkens. “That’s race riding. That’s what you have to do. It was probably just enough to discourage him a little bit and when we straightened away we kind of kicked away and it made the difference.”
Maragh said he liked the blinkers on Wicked Strong. “He was very aggressive today; he put me in the race, which I was happy about. Tonalist made a bold move, and I thought, ‘It’s going to be a good horse race’ from there and Wicked Strong just dug in and found extra and pulled away at the end.”
“He wasn’t loafing down the backstretch. He was running into a nice rhythm and didn’t go on and off the bridle, which he was doing in his prior starts. He was more focused today and more aggressive.”
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