Shadwell Stable's Mutasaabeq, last at the top of the stretch in the field of 11, rocketed to the front at the sixteenth pole and cruised to a 21/4-length victory in the 30th running of the $200,000 Bourbon (G2) for 2-year-olds at Keeneland and earn a spot in the $1-million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) to be run at a mile at the Lexington, Ky., track on Nov. 6.
Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Luis Saez, Mutasaabeq covered the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:43.13 in his grass debut. It is the fifth victory in the Bourbon for Pletcher, whose other winners are Twilight Meteor (2006), Bittel Road (2008), Interactif (2009) and Current (2018).
Into the Sunrise emerged with the lead in the run to the first turn and set fractions of :22.62, :47.09 and 1:12.24 while Saez waited at the back.
Mutasaabeq shifted to the outside on the far turn, entered the stretch eight wide and quickly picked off rivals before overtaking Into the Sunrise inside the sixteenth pole and drawing off.
“We broke a little slow,” said Saez. “Last time he did the same thing, but I knew I had a lot of horse. The distance was great for him. He was working so good on the turf. We knew what we had. When we came to the half-mile I was trying to (decide) where we were going to go – inside or out – but inside we had so many horses. I felt like I had the horse to go out and let him roll. When he came to the straight, he just took off. He did it easy.”
“He didn't break well and that has historically been him,” said Pletcher. “He's a horse that has speed and he has a tremendous turn of foot as you saw today, but he's notoriously not been great the first jump or two away from the gate. So I wasn't surprised when he didn't get away well and then he kind of got shuffled back and then a horse kind of came over and he had to steady a bit.
“The first 100 yards didn't go very well, but he was able to save a little bit of ground around the first turn and it looked like Luis (Saez) was biding his time and trying to figure out whether he should find a seam to go through or ultimately he just decided to circle the field and kind of sling-shotted them. He delivered an explosive turn of foot. Great to see and great for the Shadwell team.
“His maiden win was very impressive and his gate work prior to his maiden win was as good as any 2-year-old we've had at Saratoga ever. We felt that the Hopeful (G1), they kind of ran away from him and he couldn't really close the way we hoped he would. Kind of looking into his pedigree, the Into Mischief's run on anything.”
A Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale graduate, Mutasaabeq is a Kentucky-bred son of Into Mischief out of the Scat Daddy mare Downside Scenario. The victory was worth $120,000 and increased his earnings to $189,600 with a record of 3-2-0-1.
Sent off as the favorite, Mutasaabeq paid $6, $3.80 and $3.60. Abarta, also by the Spendthrift Farm stallion Into Mischief, rallied for second under Umberto Rispoli to return $10.60 and $7.60. Nathan Detroit finished another three-quarters of a length back in third under Julien Leparoux and paid $7.60 to show.
It was another head back to Into the Sunrise, who was followed in order by Arrest Me Red, Private Island, Spyglass, Barrister Tom, Blame the Booze, Indy Tourist and Really Slow.
The post Mutasaabeq Leads 1-2 Finish For Leading Sire Into Mischief In Bourbon Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
