The star attraction last Saturday at Pimlico was no doubt GI Preakness S. winner Journalism (Curlin). It's hard to top the winner of a Triple Crown race. But there was another 3-year-old colt on the card who turned in a huge race and will surely be heard from again.
Owned by Bobby Flay and James Ventura, Crudo was an impressive winner of the Sir Barton S., a restricted race for 3-year-olds. He won by 7 1/2 lengths. A start in the GI Belmont S. is a possibility for this exciting son of Justify, who was purchased for $350,000 as a weanling at the Keeneland November Sale. Crudo is an Italian cooking term that means raw.
So that we could learn more about Crudo, we called upon Flay to join us this week for the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.
So far as running in the Belmont, Flay said that decision would be made by trainer Todd Pletcher.
“I don't make those choices,” Flay said. “One of the things I learned a long time ago is I let the people who really know what they're doing make those decisions. So, that means in Todd Pletcher we trust. I've heard some rumblings about going to the Belmont. Personally, I think it might be a little early for that horse, but, then again, he showed some talent. That's for sure. So, you have to start thinking about things like that, but it's a long summer and there's so many great races during the summer. When we get excited about something that might be, let's call it 'better than the usual,' you can't wait to see it happen again. I think sometimes you make decisions with horses like that too quickly. But if Todd calls me up and says, 'I want to run in the Belmont Stakes,' that's where the horse is going.”
Crudo is somewhat an oddity, a colt for an owner who has specialized in fillies.
“In this case, I'm not really sure why I bought a colt, but I decided I was going to and that I would pinhook a few horses,” Flay said. “That's what happens when you go to these sales…like all of a sudden you start getting creative. There is a lot of time in between waiting for your horses to come through the ring. So a couple of bourbons later, I thought 'let's pinhook some horses.' Sire power is very important to me. Justify had just started showing that he was going to have talent outside of his racing record as a sire. (Bloodstock advisor) Tom (McGreevy) said, 'I love this horse's walk.' So I paid the $350,000. He was the most expensive justify weanling that season that went through the ring. And then Justify became even more successful over the next handful of months as a sire. He was winning in Europe. He was winning in the U.S.
“I was like, wow, we're going to ring the bell here. We took them to the Saratoga sale, which is one of my favorite sales, to pinhook him. And nobody looked at him. I mean, honestly. Nobody. Everybody said, he's too short-legged.” Crudo was bought back when bidding stalled out at $520,000.
He didn't look like or run like a short-legged horse in the Sir Barton.
“This horse just seems to get better as the furlongs click off,” Flay said. “I think we saw a little bit of that the other day. They were not going slow. It was :23, :46 and they were on his back. And when he turned for home, he just kicked away. And if you watch the gallop out, you'll see that he galloped out 20 lengths ahead of everyone else. It was crazy. He showed that he has some talent. It was really nice to watch.”
Flay also weighed in on the spacing of the Triple Crown races, which became an even hotter issue after it was announced the GI Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief) would not be running in the Preakness. Flay is among those who feels that there's needs to be more time between the races.
“I love the traditions of this sport,” Flay said. “It's one of the things I love about it. And that's why when you see me at a racetrack, I am dressed up because I feel like the sport and the horses and all the people around it deserve that respect. I like the traditions of horse racing and think it goes beyond how fast the horse can run and did you cash a bet. I just love the whole sort of pageantry of it all, but in this case, I would like to defect from tradition and run the races on the first Saturday in May, the first Saturday in June and the first Saturday in July. My feeling is really that nothing else matters as much as the Triple Crown. It's not even close. It's 50 lengths back to the most important race after that. We need to take care of the Triple Crown if we want people to pay attention to the sport beyond the people that actually already pay attention to the sport. That's always been my goal. I want people to get tied onto the Triple Crown for as long as possible. instead of it being a five-week thing, why not make it something that goes on well into the summer. And if they have to push back some races at Saratoga, so be it.”
In our “Fastest Horse of the Week” segment, which is sponsored by WinStar, we went over the many reasons there are breed to WinStar stallion Two Phil's. There were three “fastest horses of the week,” all of them earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. They were GIII Pimlico Special winner Awesome Aaron (Practical Joke), Booth (Mitole), the winner of the GIII Maryland Sprint S., and Utah Beach (English Channel), the winner of the GIII Louisville S.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the KTOB, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, 1/ST Racing and 1/ST TV, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley talked about who was at fault–Umberto Rispoli or Flavien Prat–when there was so much bumping in the stretch run of the Preakness. Cadman, a former jockey, said she thought Rispoli was to blame. There was also a discussion of Junior Alvarado's appeal for excessive use of the whip in the Kentucky Derby. Moss said that thanks to his connections at NBC, was able to watch a super slow motion replay from a camera that followed Sovereignty all around the track. He said he thought Alvarado actually hit the horse nine times. The team also remembered trainer Larry Demeritte, who passed away earlier this week at age 75.
Click here for the audio-only version.
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