Gary and Mary West's homebred West Will Power took the lead out of the gate and never was threatened in posting a 6 3/4-length victory over stablemate Fulsome in the $350,000 Hagyard Fayette (G2) for 3-year-olds and up Saturday afternoon to highlight the closing day of Keeneland's 17-day Fall Meet.
Joel Rosario sent West Will Power right to the front and led the field of five through fractions of :25.17, :49.17 and 1:13.93 while maintaining a daylight advantage. At the head of the stretch, West Will Power expanded his lead and coasted to his first stakes victory.
Brad Cox trains West Will Power, who covered the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:50.68. It is the second victory in the race for Cox and Rosario with the former saddling 2018 winner Leofric and the latter scoring on Tom's d'Etat in 2019.
West Will Power is a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Bernardini out of the Wild Event mare Wild Promises. Now 12-5-5-0 in his career, West Will Power earned $217,000 in the Hagyard Fayette to increase his earnings to $525,230.
West Will Power returned $4.74. Fulsome, ridden by Florent Geroux and trained by Cox, finished three-quarters of a length in front of Last Samurai under Tyler Gaffalione.
It was another 3½ lengths back to King Fury with favored First Captain finishing last.
HAGYARD FAYETTE QUOTES (G2)
Brad Cox (trainer of winner West Will Power and runner-up Fulsome): “I think (West Will Power) likes being on the front. He likes the two turns. I want to start by thanking Team West (owners Gary and Mary West) for giving us the horse. We had to back off him last fall; he had a couple of minor issues. They gave him plenty of time. They were patient, and patience pays off in this game. It worked out today. I was very proud of the horse and the effort.”
On leading the Fall Meet trainer standings with one race remaining:
“It's great. Keeneland is very special to us, to our whole team. It means a lot to come here both in the spring and the fall. They're both tough meets. They're short but they're tough. I'm very proud of my son, (assistant trainer) Blake (Cox). This is his second time being here in the fall. I'm proud of my whole team, but he stepped up, he did a good job, and I can tell you he really wanted to win this, or be part of it. The whole team, the whole staff: Congratulations to our group and our team and the Wests as well.”
Joel Rosario (winning jockey): “He looked very comfortable (racing on the front end). Like (trainer) Brad (Cox) said, 'Just let him go do his thing.' He was pretty confident today and turning for home he just kept moving forward.”
Florent Geroux (rider of Fulsome): “(My trip) went great. He was in the back, and I was able to save ground pretty much all the way. I just tipped him out down the lane, and we were just second best today. He ran really good. The winner appeared to have much speed in the race so he was able to set a pretty easy fraction and from there he just kept on going.”
Luis Saez (rider of beaten favorite and fifth-place finisher First Captain): “He rode with them, but he couldn't keep going; he just couldn't stay going. From the beginning I thought they went pretty quick in front and when we tried to get going he never responded.”
The post ‘Just Let Him Do His Thing’: West Will Power Aces Fayette In Gate-To-Wire Romp On Keeneland’s Closing Day appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
