After two consecutive fourth-place finishes, Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go regained his winning ways on Friday night at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, crushing his five rivals with a 10 1/4-length front-end score under Joel Rosario in the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap.
Last Judgment, who tried to keep up with Knicks Go in the early stages of the race, held second, with 8-year-old veteran Rated R Superstar a half-length back in third. Tenfold finished fourth, Dinar fifth and Modernist trailed the field. Drifting West was scratched.
Sent off as the 3-5 favorite, Knicks Go paid $3.20 to win after running the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:47.33. He set fractional times of :23.33, :47.02, 1:10.77 and 1:35.06. Knicks Go is trained by 2020 Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox. He was bred in Maryland by Angie Moore.
Under the handicap conditions of the Cornhusker, Knicks Go carried 126 pounds, conceding six pounds to the runner-up and 10 pounds to Rated R Superstar.
Rosario sat motionless on Knicks Go for most of the Cornhusker and the 5-year-old son of Payner was geared down even further approaching the wire.
A G1 winner of the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland in 2018, Knicks Go went winless in his next 10 starts until returning to the winner's circle after a February 2020 allowance race at Oaklawn Park. That began a four-race win streak culminating in victories in the G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in November and G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational in January.
But Knicks Go tired to be fourth in the Group 1 Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia, run less than a month after the Pegasus, then set the pace and wound up fourth again in the G1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap on June 5.
The Cornhusker was Knicks Go's seventh career win from 21 lifetime starts.
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