Currency Swap victorious in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, providing trainer Teresa Pompay with her first grade 1 win
Second straight win in as many starts for the tenacious 2-year-old colt Currency Swap, who also succeeded in handing trainer Teresa Pompay her first grade 1 win when he romped past his 9 juvenile rivals to capture the Grade 1 $250,000 Three Chimneys Hopeful
Stakes on 5 September, 2011.
The favoured son of High Cotton handled the sloppy conditions at Saratoga better than anyone else and won the closing day feature race at Saratoga by three quarters of a length.
Owned by William H. Lawrence and Klaravich Stables, Currency Swap broke his maiden on the fast track at Saratoga on 6 August, 2011.
Under jockey Rajiv Maragh the colt zipped past his rivals to break his maiden in his first attempt over a distance of six furlongs, defeating Africanist by six lengths with the winning time of 1 minute and 17.02 seconds.
This time around in the Grade 1 Hopeful, 2-year-old Bisnath Parboo trained Trinniberg was Currency Swaps closest rival.
Currency Swap wore down the 68 to 1 shot Trinniberg with an awesome turn of foot in the final yards of the race to narrowly claim the win.
Trinniberg got in front right after the break and the pacey colt set up nice fractions over the sloppy track while Currency Swap was kept on the outside by jockey Rajiv Maragh four lengths behind the leader.
The long shot Trinniberg dug it out, and refused to give in, but the gritty run by Currency Swap allowed him to cut into the front runner’s lead on the turn entering into the mid stretch.
The two battled it out in the end and it turned out to be a thriller when Currency Swap narrowly edged past his opponent Trinniberg to hit the wire.
Big Blue Nation never threatened the lead but rallied hard to finish third, while the second choice J C’s Pride broke down on the turn and was eased away by jockey Jose Lezcano, and he was taken out of the race by the horse ambulance.
The Hopeful victory boosted Currency Swap’s career total to $180,000.
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