Napoleon Solo dominated on the front end under Hall of Famer Joel Rosario to post a resounding 6 1\/2-length score in Saturday\u2019s Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne, a one-turn mile for 2-year-olds, at Belmont at the Big A.<\/p>\n
In victory, the Chad Summers trainee for owner Al Gold\u2019s Gold Square earned a \u201cWin and You\u2019re In\u201d berth into the Grade 1 Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile on October 31 at Del Mar and also claimed the maximum allotment of 10-5-3-2-1 qualifying points on offer to the top-five finishers towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve been trying to get Grade 1 horses and trying to get to the Kentucky Derby, we were there with Cyberknife a few years ago\u2026so this is great,\u201d Summers said. \u201cI\u2019m just so happy for Al and his family, the time, effort and money they put into this. He loves his names, horses, and the game. To have a horse like this is inspiring, it might even be inspiring enough to get on a plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napoleon Solo, by Liam\u2019s Map, entered from a sparkling 5 1\/4-length debut score under Kendrick Carmouche in a restricted maiden sprint on August 8 at Saratoga Race Course. Rosario, who won the Grade 1 Frizette one race earlier with Iron Orchard, picked up the mount here and sent Napoleon Solo to the front through splits of 22.53 seconds and 44.24 with 2-5 mutuel favorite It\u2019s Our Time stalking from second position.<\/p>\n
Napoleon Solo led the field into the turn as 17 3\/4-length debut winner It\u2019s Our Time was scrubbed on by Luis Saez as they tried and failed to make a dent in the frontrunner\u2019s ever-increasing lead. Napoleon Solo opened up by five lengths at the stretch call and stayed on strong to the wire to notch the win in a final time of 1:34.57 over the fast main track.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe broke really well out of there. It looked like the track was a little [fast]. They keep moving on it, so just try to stay there [up front] – it looked like it was easy for him,\u201d said Rosario. \u201cI thought honestly he would sit third or fourth, but he broke so well, and I don’t try to take anything away, because it was easy for him. I kind of went to another plan after that. It looked like he was doing it nice and easy, so I just rode him and hopefully no one was faster than him.”<\/p>\n
Talkin [5 points], trained by Danny Gargan who saddled Iron Orchard to victory in the Frizette, closed wide under Carmouche to complete the exacta by three-quarter lengths over the rail-running Universe [3 points] in third. It\u2019s Our Time [2 points] and Stradale [1 point] rounded out the top-five followed by Curtain Call, Aye Eye, Stickupwithoutagun and Just Asap.<\/p>\n
Gargan said the Kentucky-bred Talkin, who posted an impressive debut maiden August 30 at the Spa, may have earned a berth in the nine-furlong Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen on December 6 here which offers 10-5-3-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran huge. Got out there, I thought there’d be more speed. I would have loved to have won two Grade 1s today, but if I’m second, I’m OK with it,\u201d Gargan said. \u201cI didn’t want Kendrick to engage him early and use him and fade. I said, ‘I’m trying to teach this horse because I think he’s going to be a two-turn horse.’ This horse could win the Remsen, just give him a good education today. We’ll come out of this race and come back in the Remsen at a mile and an eighth and it will be right in his wheelhouse. I thought he ran really good today.”<\/p>\n
Summers said he loved the way Napoleon Solo, who is named for a fictional character from the TV spy series\u00a0The Man from U.N.C.L.E., finished up after sharp splits early and a significant break from his debut score.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have a lot of horses that go 44 and change and keep going,\u201d Summers said. \u201cHe did it, it wasn\u2019t really the plan, but Joel said he just broke so easy and he had so much horse in hand, he goes, \u2018with the way the track is playing, let\u2019s just go ahead.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were worried because we had the time off, 24 days to the Hopeful, 60 days to this race,\u201d Summers added. \u201cWhat do you do? You are in no man\u2019s land. He\u2019s a 2-year-old, he\u2019s a nice horse, he\u2019s developing, Al is such a great owner, we work together to make that plan and think what is best for the horse now and for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Summers said he will sit down with the team to discuss the possibility of a trip to Del Mar for the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. Look, [with] a race like this, you want to go. But that was a fast time with a young horse who has only run two races, we will look at all the numbers, see how the numbers come back, get together with Al,\u201d Summers said. \u201cOnce again, the Breeders\u2019 Cup is in California, I wish it was on the East Coast once or twice. Get on a plane and get over there, there\u2019s a lot of things to take under consideration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bred in Kentucky by John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock, Napoleon Solo, a $40,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is out of the stakes-winning Scat Daddy mare Atomic Blonde.\u00a0He banked $275,000 in victory and returned $15.94 for a $2 win bet as the 6-1 second choice.<\/p>\n
\ufeffLive racing resumes Sunday at Belmont at the Big A with a nine-race card featuring the Grade 3, $175,000 Waya in Race 6. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.\ufeff\u00a0<\/p>\n
America\u2019s Day at the Races\u00a0will present live coverage and analysis of the Belmont at the Big A fall meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.nyra.com\/aqueduct\/racing\/tv-schedule\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont at the Big A, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at\u00a0www.NYRABets.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Napoleon Solo dominated on the front end under Hall of Famer Joel Rosario to post a resounding 6…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-474405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115318000524485805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}