Belmont: Overanaylze's win in Futurity gives Pletcher sweep of juvenile stakes

Tom Keyser

Overanalyze, under John Velazquez, ovecomes a bad start to score in the Futurity.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Overanalyze overcame a terrible start with a terrific finish to win Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Futurity at Belmont Park.

Away from the gate slow and then knocked sideways by the horse to his outside, Overanalyze had to rally from last under John Velazquez to run past Carried Interest in deep stretch and win by 3 1/4 lengths. Carried Interest, making his first start since a good-looking debut here in July, finished second by three-quarters of a length over Weekend Hideaway, the 9-5 favorite.

Handsome Jack, Gulfport, Drum Roll, and Special Jo completed the order of finish.

The win gave trainer Todd Pletcher a sweep of the juvenile stakes run here Sunday as he also took the Grade 2 Matron with Kauai Katie.

The win was the second from three starts for Overanalyze, a son of Dixie Union owned by Mike Repole.

Overanalyze won his debut at Saratoga on the lead, and then pressed the pace when fourth in the Grade 2 Hopeful.

 Velazquez said Overanalyze warmed up Sunday like he would speed away from the gates when the doors opened. Instead, he was flat-footed and then got slammed by Handsome Jack. He was last after a quarter-mile.

 “I wanted to be on the lead or two lengths behind the leaders,” Velazquez said.

Velazquez was fortunate as there was a four-horse scrum in front of him and the result was a contested half-mile through 46.40 seconds over a heavy main track.

Overanalyze rallied five wide in the stretch and continued a sustained bid to run past Carried interest, who did well to hold second after being part of the early pace.

 “You’re never sure how they’re going to react in that situation. I thought he handled it very professionally,” Pletcher said. “I was concerned. At the same time it was sort of working out. Everybody else was sort of mixing it up and he looked like he was running into the dirt and making up ground as he was going along.”

Overanalyze covered six furlongs in 1:11.46 - .20 of a second slower than Kauai Katie’s time for the Matron - and returned $13.80 to win.

 “You got to be really happy the way he did it,” Velazquez said. “Obviously, he got all the dirt, came through there,  then came running and he galloped out really good. Great experience for him.”

 Pletcher said he would discuss things with Repole before deciding what would be next for Overanalyze.

 Trainer Rick Violette was both happy and frustrated with Carried Interest’s second-place finish. He put away the other speed horses, but couldn’t hold off Overanalyzed.

 “To break that good from the one hole and be able to get clear and then get swallowed up at the head of the lane. He leaves that bunch and the one horse making the one run beats him,” Violette said. “He’s a nice horse.”