On Calumet Saturday at Kentucky Downs, the farm's homebred Gear Jockey delivered a timely performance to triumph in the Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint. Crossing the wire 2 1/2 lengths the best at odds of 5-1, Gear Jockey lowered the track record for six furlongs by over a second: his final time was 1:07.90 over the firm turf. Jose Lezcano piloted the Rusty Arnold trainee to victory.
The 4-year-old son of Twirling Candy earned the first graded stakes victory of his career in the Turf Sprint, as well as an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November.
Third by a length in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf as a maiden, Gear Jockey has continued to improve with age. The colt broke his maiden in January of 2021, and hadn't run worse than fourth in seven starts this year as he entered the starting gate at Kentucky Downs. Most recently, Gear Jockey ran third after a poor start in the G3 Troy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 6.
Coming from well off the pace that day, Gear Jockey was much closer to the pace in this pace-less edition of the Turf Sprint. Bombard grabbed the lead at the start, and Lezcano kept Gear Jockey right on his heels through fractions of :22.38 and :45.14. Rounding the far turn Gear Jockey drew even with the frontrunner, and Lezcano sent him up the hill to the wire an easy winner by 2 1/2 lengths.
Diamond Oops, also up close early, made up ground in the lane to out-finish Bombard by a nose for the place. Troy Stakes winner Fast Boat finished another head back in fourth. Race-favorite Got Stormy, the filly taking on the males, finished sixth, beaten 3 1/4 lengths.
Bred in Kentucky by owner Brad Kelley's Calumet Farm, Gear Jockey is out of the winning Tapit mare Switching Gears, from the family of Grade 1 winner Stroll. Calumet purchased the mare with Gear Jockey in utero for $20,000 at the 2017 Keeneland January sale. With a record of four wins, two seconds, and five fifths from 15 career starts, Gear Jockey has earned a total of $902,875.
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