Belmont Park: General Maximus repeats in Hudson - this time as a ridgling

Adam Coglianese/NYRA

General Maximus is rounding back into top form after an abbreviated 2011 campaign.

ELMONT, N.Y. - As well as General Maximus ran in the Hudson Stakes last year, trainer John Terranova felt his horse had “never been better” entering Saturday’s renewal of the sprint stakes for New York-breds.

Terranova’s assessment was borne out as General Maximus, under Corey Nakatani, ran down a stubborn pacesetting Dr Disco to win the $125,000 Hudson Stakes by one length. Dr Disco, who made the pace under Mike Luzzi, finished second by 1 1/4 lengths over Mineswept.

It was the fifth win from 13 starts for General Maximus, a 4-year-old son of Freud, but his first since he won this race last year.

General Maximus had gone winless in three starts this year. He had surgery to remove an undescended testicle in the summer, which made him a ridgling. The horse also suffered from some hind end soreness, according to Terranova.

“We just had to fix a few things and everybody had to wait things out a little bit,” said Terranova, who trains General Maximus for Michael Imperio, Elizabeth Loftus, and Goldmark Farm.

General Maximus broke a little awkwardly in the Hudson, but quickly recovered and was sitting just off of Dr Disco after a quarter in 22.26 seconds, and a half-mile in 44.96 seconds.

In mid-stretch, Dr Disco appeared to be holding General Maximus at bay, but General Maximus kept coming and got him in the final 20 yards. General Maximus covered the six furlongs in 1:09.58 and returned $10.40 as the third choice.

“My horse didn’t get away as great as I thought he would,” Nakatani said. “When he broke so hard it got away from him a little bit, but he actually picked himself right back up and was right there without me having to use him at all to hold his position. When I picked him up and asked him to level off and go about his business, he did.”

Terranova plans to point General Maximus to the Grade 3, $100,000 Fall Highweight at Aqueduct on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24).

“Hopefully we can string a little form together here and have a good winter horse,” Terranova said. “We want to get him into some graded company.”

The biggest disappointment of the race was Pretty Boy Freud, who finished last after winning his last two starts on dirt impressively.