Howe Great should be back to winning ways in the Hill Prince Stakes
Team Valor International’s graded stakes winning 3-year-old colt, Howe Great, posted a hat-trick in his first three career races, only to concede on his first start on synthetic surface, which snapped his brilliant three race win streak, but returned to
grass to earn a respectable placed finish.
Trainer Graham Motion, originally pointed Howe Great to run in a stakes race at Indiana Downs, but changed his mind and decided to keep the colt in New York, and run over the Belmont Park’s inner turf course for the Grade 3, $150,000 Hill Prince Stakes at
Belmont Park.
Over a distance of 1 mile on turf, Howe Great on 16 June, 2012, will face 13 other 3-year-old colts and geldings, in a bid to become the best 3-year-old turf male in the nation, but that will take some doing, as Silver Max has already have that title in
the bag with an impressive winning streak on turf of his own.
Silver Max is headed to Oliver Stakes to extend his winning streak to 6 in a row, where Howe Great was pointed at before the Hill Prince Stakes.
Bred in Kentucky, Howe Great didn’t run a maiden special weight, instead he downed an allowance race at Gulfstream Park on 15 December, 2011, which is the next best thing, and staying at Gulfstream Park he became a stakes race winner by downing the Kitten’s
Joy Stakes.
The son of Hat Trick, posted his first hat-trick in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park, where he got stretched out in distance from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/8 miles, but coped with the change well and defeated, Dullahan, to wrap up his hat-trick.
Out of Western Winter mare Ginger Sea, Howe Great lost his winning streak with a fifth place finish in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes to Dullahan.
“He’s been unlucky with post positions in his last two starts,” said Graham Motion. “He’s drawn outside posts, and last time he broke outward. Horses tend to do that when they’re far outside, and I think it can definitely affect them. I don’t think his Blue
Grass was all that bad, but he’s probably better on turf.”
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