With the likes of GI Kentucky Derby hero Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and GI Preakness S. winner Exaggerator (Curlin) failing to fire, it was lightly raced Connect (Curlin) who stepped up and hung on narrowly over Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GII Pennsylvania Derby. Wild About Deb (Eskendereya) completed the trifecta at 60-1. Third sprinting at the Big A last December, Connect resurfaced in the Belmont slop to earn his diploma by four lengths in May. He added a Big Sandy allowance on the stretch-out June 11, and bested stablemate and 'TDN Rising Star' Gift Box (Twirling Candy) in Saratoga's Curlin S. July 29 before finishing sixth, beaten 21 3/4 lengths, behind a jaw-dropping performance from 'Rising Star' Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) in that venue's GI Travers S. Aug. 27.
Saturday, Parx
PENNSYLVANIA DERBY-GII, $1,320,000, PRX, 9-24, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:50.20, ft.
1–@CONNECT, 119, c, 3, by Curlin">Curlin
1st Dam: Bullville Belle, by Holy Bull
2nd Dam: Barkerville Belle, by Ruthie's Native
3rd Dam: Celebrity Belle, by Star Envoy
($150,000 Ylg '14 FTKJUL). O-Paul P. Pompa, Jr.; B-Fox Straus
KY (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Javier Castellano. $750,000.
Lifetime Record: 6-4-0-1, $950,000. *1/2 to Tani Maru
(Cherokee Run), MSW, $223,515. Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click
for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”xavier-yearling-purchase”][bullet ad=”vanmeter-oh-yeah”][bullet ad=”kbif-g2g3″]2–Gun Runner, 122, c, 3, Candy Ride (Arg)–Quiet Giant, by Giant's Causeway. O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC, Three
Chimneys Farm & Besilu Stables; B-Besilu Stables, LLC (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen. $250,000.[bullet ad=”bridlewood-farm-training-graduate”][bullet ad=”ea-bloodstock-2-yo-selection”][bullet ad=”niall-brennan-nbs-graduate”] 3–Wild About Deb, 117, c, 3, Eskendereya–Smarty Deb, by Smart Strike. ($37,000 RNA Ylg '14 KEESEP; $30,000 2yo '15 OBSAPR). O-Marisa Lizza; B-Northwest Farms LLC (KY);
T-Ramon Preciado. $137,500.
Margins: HF, 4, NK. Odds: 10.60, 5.20, 61.90.
Also Ran: My Man Sam, Awesome Slew, Nyquist, Exaggerator, Cupid, Summer Revolution, Discreet Lover, Sunny Ridge, Hit It Once More.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
Away well, but bumped lightly on either side passing the stands for the first time, Connect was well held to midpack and saved ground through expectedly solid fractions of :23 flat and :47 1/5. Pushed along to advance on the home turn, he came up a wide-open rail as pacesetter Awesome Slew (Awesome Again) floated wide, taking Nyquist and Gun Runner with him. Nyquist fought on with Gun Runner also plugging away down the center of the straight, but Connect dug deep to hold sway from the latter. Exaggerator, well back early, seemed to show some interest along the home bend but never mounted a serious rally.
“This kind of horse, he's a big horse and I think he put it together today,” said winning pilot Javier Castellano. “I'm very satisfied with the way he did it today.”
When asked about the prospects of a tilt at the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, Castellano replied, “It all depends on the trainer and
the owner to make the right decisions. I'm the pilot, I just go with the flow.”
It was yet another productive day for trainer Chad Brown, who overtook Todd Pletcher as the nation's leading trainer by purse earnings Saturday and whose trainees also annexed the GII Commonwealth Derby at Laurel and GIII Noble Damsel S. at Belmont. With Brown back at Belmont, assistant Cherie DeVaux was on hand to saddle Connect.
“He broke really well and found himself in a really good position on the rail saving all the ground,” she noted. “Javier was really patient with him, took his time with him and made his one run and the horse was really gutsy to hang in there.”
Nyquist, given time after a disappointing fourth in the GI Haskell Invitational S. July 31, faded to sixth and left his connections scratching their heads.
“The winner ran well and we didn't have any apparent excuse,” Nyquist's owner Paul Reddam said. “We'll have to check the horse over and make sure that he's ok and we'll work from there. That was definitely the worst performance of his life, so that's not how you want to go into the Breeders' Cup. Maybe it'll somehow look different tomorrow, but I'm not sure how.”
Pedigree Notes:
Connect's MSW second dam was responsible for GSW Native Regent (Vice Regent), SW/MGSP Royal Fair (Deputy Minister) and MSW/MGSP Morriston Belle (Herat). He hails from the same extended female family as Backseat Rhythm (El Corredor), third in the 2007 GI Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies and a winner of the following year's GI Garden City S. in the same Paul Pompa, Jr. silks. He has an unraced Tizway 2-year-old half-brother who was a $130,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling, and a weanling half-brother by Uncle Mo.
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