To Honor and Serve to make his 2012 debut in the Westchester Stakes
As a 3-year-old, To Honor and Serve, wherever he went in his last few races set the track ablaze with his new found confidence and pace, winning just about everything thrown his way .
Now as a 4-year-old, To Honor and Serve is expected to turn in a similar sort of performance, but this time at the beginning of his 2012 campaign.
Trained by Bill Mott for owner Live Oak Plantation, the Bernardini colt is pointed at the Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester Stakes during the 2012 Belmont Park’s spring/summer meet on 28 April.
It is supposed to be not easy for To Honor and Serve as he faces two other grade 1 winners Jersey Town and Boys at Tosconova, in a traditional prep race for older horses for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.
In the Met Mile Handicap, To Honor and Serve along with serve are tabbed as the 7 to 5 morning line favourite on the Memorial Day.
The Kentucky bred is out of mare Pilfer by Deputy Minister. To Honor and Serve last year started off with two back to back third place finishes in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes to winner Soldat at Gulfstream Park and over the same venue posted a third place finish in the Grade 1 Florida Derby to winner Dialed In.
However, shortened up in distance to six and a half furlongs from 1 1/8 miles, Caleb’s Posse got the better of To Honor and Serve in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga where he finished a dismal sixth.
Since then he never looked back and his fantastic run started with an allowance win at Saratoga leading up to a scintillating victory in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby, but a troubled seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic distorted his winning streak.
In his one final burst of the 2011 campaign, To Honor and Serve bagged the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct racetrack.
“He put on a lot of weight, filled out, and matured a lot,” said Mott. “He definitely needs a race to get going, I am sure. Our early goal for this part of the season would be the Met Mile (gr. I). You always have to have something to shoot for, and that’s what we’re shooting for at first.”
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