Team Hanley's Captain Bombastic ran down a game 38-1 longshot Listentoyourheart in the final furlong, overtaking him from the outside and holding on for a 1 1/4-length victory in Sunday's $100,000 Mike Lee for New York-bred 3-year-olds going seven furlongs at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.
Captain Bombastic, a stakes-winner against state-breds as a juvenile, continued a consistent start to his career, improving to 3-2-1 in six starts. To keep the streak alive, the Forty Tales colt first tracked the early speed as Listentoyourheart led the eight-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in 22.51 seconds and the half in 45.45 on the fast main track.
Under Junior Alvarado, Listentoyourheart was not content to be a mere pacesetter, holding the advantage out of the turn and continuing with a strong run near the rail at the top of the stretch.
Captain Bombastic, under Luis Saez, pressed on out of the turn and steadily gained ground on his rival before finally gaining command in the deep stretch. Saez kept up the pressure and Captain Bombastic responded, completing seven furlongs in 1:21.94.
“There was a nice pace up front. That was the plan,” Saez said. “I knew we had a couple speed [types] outside of us, so the plan was to track them. We got our spot and when we made our move he responded. I was very comfortable. I had a lot of horse. When he put me in that spot, I knew he was going to win.”
The Jeremiah Englehart trainee improved to 2-0-1 in three career starts. Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, Captain Bombastic, off at 3-1, paid $8.20 on a $2 win wager and improved his career earnings to $316,800.
“He's a really cool horse,” Englehart said. “He's not the biggest horse. He's small compared to most of the horses in this race, but he likes to run.
“He just looked really good coming into this race,” he added. “He's just very athletic and I thought Luis did a great job. I didn't want to be down in behind horses on the fence, I thought we'd be more in the clear, but it worked out well. I thought we would sit a stalking trip on the outside, but Luis rode him very confidently, saved the ground on the turn, split horses and had horse to finish.”
Listentoyourheart, trained by Christophe Clement, looked strong off a nine-month layoff, besting 8-5 favorite Dream Bigger by one length for second. The son of Afleet Alex started his sophomore campaign in the same strong fashion in which he commenced his juvenile year, when he won his debut last June before running second in the Rick Violette and third in the Funny Cide during the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course.
“He ran a big race,” Alvarado said. “He broke very sharp and I decided to try and take it from there. I thought maybe because I'm on a longshot, they would let me go out nice and easy. He did show that he belonged with these horses. He finished up well.”
City Man, Three Jokers, Mission Wrapitup, Bourbon Bay and Gandy Dancing completed the order of finish.
Live racing resumes Thursday with a 10-race card highlighted by the $125,000 Critical Eye for New York-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going one mile on the main track in Race 9 at 5:36 p.m. Eastern. First post is 1:15 p.m.
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