Belmont Park: Power Broker bounds home to win Easy Goer

ELMONT, N.Y. - It has taken Power Broker a long time to get back to the Grade 1 form he displayed as a 2-year-old, but it does indeed appear as though he has found it.

Stalking the pacesetting Always in a Tiz through a decent early pace under Rosie Napravnik, Power Broker took command leaving the three-furlong marker, then bounded home a 3 3/4-length winner of Saturday's $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont Park.

[BELMONT STAKES DAY: Video replays and race results]

Micromanage rallied from well back along the inside to get second by one length over Irsaal. It was 6 1/4 lengths back to New Line, who was followed in the order of finish by Wabbajack, Eton Blue, Doherty, Always in a Tiz, and Puget Sound.

The win was the second straight for Power Broker, a son of Pulpit owned by Gary and Mary West and trained by Bob Baffert. At 2, Power Broker won just one race, but it came as a maiden in the Grade 1 FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita.

Breaking from post 2, Power Broker stalked Always in a Tiz through a quarter in 23.36 seconds and a half-mile in 46.71. While Napravnik kept a path in between her and Always in a Tiz, she had Eton Blue directly to her outside.

Approaching the five-sixteenths pole, Power Broker put away Eton Blue and Always In a Tiz, but seemingly had to brace for the challenge of Irsaal.

Turning for home, Power Broker ran away from Irsaal and was never threatened down the lane. He covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.55 and returned $4.70 as the 6-5 favorite.

"Coming from the inside, I figured we'd definitely be close," Napravnik said. "It was actually a nice pace. My horse, when I breezed him the other day, he was so on his game, so he was coming into the race very well."