Gerard and Alain Wertheimer's homebred Dataman, a 3-year-old son of Tapit, drove past the pacesetting stakes winner Ari Gold down the stretch to win Sunday's $100,000 Bald Eagle by three-quarters of a length over a firm 1 3/16-mile turf course.
Trained by Graham Motion and ridden by Jorge Ruiz, Dataman returned $26.80 while covering the distance in 1:54.72.
“Saved our weekend,” said Motion, who saddled Romagna Mia to a third-place finish in the Beverly D. (G1) and watched Nagirroc finish second by a neck in the Secretariat (G2) Sunday at Colonial Downs.
Dataman, out of the Maria's Mon mare Soldata, broke his maiden at second asking last year on the turf at Colonial before finishing sixth in the Pilgram (G2) and fourth in the Rocky Run. After running twice at Tampa in December and January, Motion gave the gelding some time off. He returned on June 28 after time off in Florida to win an off-the-turf event at Delaware by 11 ¼ lengths after
“I think it really was more about giving him the little break that he had,” Motion said. “Mentally he's always been a difficult horse. He's Tapit and he's very wound up in the morning. But I think we kind of got his number and I think giving him a little break really helped him and he's a little bit older now and that helps.”
While Ari Gold led his opponents throughout the opening mile, Ruiz raced fourth down the backstretch. Around the turn he guided Dataman inside a tiring Sirtaki and then guided the colt off the rail to drive by Ari Gold inside the final 70 yards.
Motion said “it makes sense” to probably keep Dataman on the grass for now.
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