Woodford Racing, Lanes End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone, and Edward Hudson Jr.'s Perform, thrilling winner of Saturday's Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, may get a short break as his connections mull where to run their improving 3-year-old next.
Perform returned to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey's Belmont Park barn following his stakes debt in the 1 1/8-mile Tesio, weaving through traffic down the stretch to run down Ninetyprcentmaddie and get up in the final stride by a head.
“We were yelling for him to get second and all of a sudden he poked through there and won the race. It was really spectacular,” Woodford Racing's Bill Farish said Sunday of the Kentucky-bred Good Magic colt. “We're very proud of him. It was a fun race. The Tesio is a great race with a lot of history, and we're thrilled to win it.”
Perform, exiting his maiden triumph in March at Tampa Bay Downs, trailed the nine-horse Tesio and stumbled at the break but settled into a ground-saving trip as two-time Laurel stakes winner Coffeewithchris led the way. Jockey Feargal Lynch maintained his course on the inside and was gaining ground around the far turn but still lacked room to advance.
Fellow multiple stakes winner Ninetyprcentmaddie, who had pressed Coffeewithchris the entire way, finally put that rival away at the eighth pole and began to clear as Lynch looked for a way through. He tipped Perform out from behind Prince of Jericho and a tiring Fletcher to make a run at the leader, moved back down inside around Prince of Jericho past the sixteenth pole and angled back outside in the final sixteenth. The winning time was 1:51.28 over a fast main track.
It was the first Tesio victory for McGaughey and second for Lynch, following Twisted Tom (2017), who would go on to run sixth in the Belmont (G1) and end his sophomore year winning three straight New York-bred stakes.
“He had such a tough trip and still was able to fight through in that last not even sixteenth of a mile,” Farish said of Perform. “The thing Shug kept saying was we just had to get him to switch off early in the race and then come on at the end. You try that a lot with horses and it doesn't always work out. He's really responded to it, and Feargal did a great job riding him yesterday.”
Perform fetched $230,000 from Florida pinhooker Eddie Woods' Quarter Pole Enterprises at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale, where he was consigned by Beau Lane Bloodstock, and ran second in debut last July at Belmont Park to subsequent Sapling winner Lost Ark. He was fourth behind Louisiana Derby (G2) runner-up Disarm second time out and third to eventual Gotham (G3) winner Raise Cain at Keeneland in October and began this year running fourth at Gulfstream Park to Mage, who would come back and be second to champion Forte in the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park.
Raise Cain (64 points, ninth), Mage (50 points, 16th) and Disarm (46 points, 18th) are all being pointed to the Kentucky Derby (G1) May 6 at Churchill Downs.
“He was a horse we had high expectations for. Just the way he was training early and the way he's built and everything we really thought he was going to be more of a sprinter,” Farish said. “He was pretty fancied his first start and just didn't quite live up to it. He showed a lot of early speed and just didn't relax in his races.
“Shug finally decided at Tampa to stretch him out to two turns and see if he'd relax, and he did, and he ran a very good race there. We thought we'd take a shot in the Tesio and we're thrilled with the way he ran,” he added. “We were looking for a two-turn race that wasn't a massive step up … so it was the perfect spot for him as it turned out. He really took a giant leap forward.”
Where that leap takes Perform will be decided in the coming weeks. The Tesio for an eighth straight year was a 'Win and In' qualifier for Triple Crown-nominated horses to the 148th Preakness (G1) May 20 at historic Pimlico Race Course. Not among the nominees, Perform would have to be supplemented for $150,000 on entry day to take his spot.
“We didn't nominate him for the Triple Crown because we thought we had a sprinter and not a very good one at that, so there was really no reason to nominate him. Maybe we wish we had, maybe not,” Farish said. “A lot of times a horse that comes this far this fast could use a little extra time going into the summer.
“I wouldn't be real apt to rush him, anyway. It's great to have some options,” he added. “He's back at Belmont already and he's a little tired from the race, which doesn't surprise us at all. Obviously, it was a big effort. It's awfully early to make any predictions but we're very excited that he can be in the conversation with the other 3-year-old races later in the year.”
Meanwhile, Laurel-based trainer Brittany Russell said the $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) May 19 at Pimlico would be under consideration for Cats Inthe Timber after the Haymarket Farm homebred earned an automatic berth for her victory in Saturday's Weber City Miss.
The win was her third from six starts for Cats Inthe Timber, whose worst finish was a fourth in the one-mile Private Terms March 18 at Laurel in her stakes debut. The 1 1/16-mile Weber City Miss marked her first start around two turns, and Russell is looking for the Honor Code filly to simply maintain her form leading up to the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan.
“I would say just no hiccups, honestly,” Russell said. “She's so consistent and just does everything right all the time. As long as she just stays doing what she's done. She's not super flashy in the morning, but she shows up to work every day. She's one of those types.”
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