Stat back on track after winning a mile long allowance/optional claimer
Bortolazzo Stable owned 3-year-old colt, Stat, is making good progress for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Kentucky bred colt bounced back in emphatic style when asked to be stretched out in distance from six and a half furlongs to 1 mile was thought to do just
well and Pletcher would have a few positives to take from his run, but Stat turned some serious head when he posted a 6 ¼ lengths victory over Gulfstream Park’s dirt track on 17 March, 2012, and downed Isutalkintome in second and Scatter Joy in third, while
covering the distance in 1 minute and 35.90 seconds under his regular rider John Velazquez.
Previously, in his 2012 debut race, Stat was pointed toward an allowance/optional claimer on 9 February, 2012, over the Gulfstream Park’s sloppy track, and finished a dismal fourth on the day to winner Maan, who covered the six and a half furlong distance
in 1 minute and 17.84 seconds.
“It was a big improvement from last time. We were happy to catch a fast track. His last two races were on a sloppy track,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We were happy to get him on a fast track and it looked like he ran much better.”
The son of Unbridled’s Song, out of mare Di’s Time by Gilded Time, Stat broke his maiden at first asking at Belmont Park’s dirt course when going over a distance of five and a half furlongs on 9 July, 2011. In his next race he made a huge impact when he
closed in from the sixteenth pole to upset a fast travelling Union Rags in the stretch.
He finished second to Union Rags in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes 15 August, 2011, and the winner downed the six and a half furlong distance in 1 minute and 18.33 seconds, with Indian Evening finishing third.
Todd Pletcher has no immediate plans for his sturdy colt. We’ll see how he bounces out of this race and go from there,” Pletcher said. “I think he might (stretch out), he’s still learning and this was a big improvement for him.”
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