Alvarado sweeps dirt stakes aboard Kapoor, Bendoog
:quality(75))
Junior Alvarado swept the two dirt stakes races for older horses Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis, riding Kapoor to a front-running score on dirt in the Marie Hulman George Memorial after piloting Bendoog to victory in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial.
Alvarado added a third stakes win Saturday with Seminole Chief in the Jonathan Schuster Memorial in his first day riding at Horseshoe Indianapolis since 2010, when he rode one horse.
Both Alvarado’s dirt winners came for trainer Bill Mott, who tried Kapoor in the first two-turn race of her career and got the 4-year-old filly, a Godolphin homebred, her first stakes win.
Kapoor won four races in a row, maiden and allowance contests, all by open lengths, but flopped last out in her stakes debut, last of seven in the Winning Colors at Churchill. Kapoor has her quirks, particularly pre-race, and appears to need the lead to run her race. She got it Saturday, breaking from post 8 and heading straight to the front while setting a fairly strong pace of 23.27 seconds for the quarter-mile and 46.48 for the half while racing in the clear.
Alvarado pressed his pace edge past the quarter pole and into the homestretch, Kapoor widening to a two-length stretch call lead. Yes It Tiz, the 7-5 favorite, made a belated bid that fell three-quarters of a length short, with Anna’s Promise another 3 1/2 back in third.
Kapoor paid $6.20 as the second choice and clocked 1:43.58 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast track. Kapoor is by Uncle Mo out of Kareena, by Medaglia D’Oro.
“Seventy percent is the post parade and the gate,” Alvarado said. “When she’s kind, she always runs her 'A' race, as she’s shown in the form before.”
Bendoog, a 7-year-old horse who began his career with 10 Dubai races, also won his first stakes race while making his 29th start, but he did so in much different fashion than Kapoor.
Fourth of just five runners at the five-sixteenths pole, still nearly 10 lengths behind pacesetting First Division, Bendoog came storming up the rail under Alvarado, coming into contention and sailing past a tired First Division on the way to a 2 1/2-length victory.
Gould’s Gold, a distant last with three furlongs remaining, closed good ground on the outside and finished second, 3 3/4 lengths ahead of First Division, who faded badly off splits of 23.29 and 46.53. Instant Replay, the 4-5 favorite, finished a flat fourth as Bendoog clocked 1:42.29 for one mile and 70 yards on a wet-fast surface. Bendoog, by Gun Runner out of Nellie Cashman, by Mineshaft, campaigns for Frank Fletcher Racing Operations and trainer William I. Mott.
Alvarado said the trainer and part-owner figured out he needed to fit Bendoog with an unusual bit to help his jockey maintain control.
“He can lug in terribly,” Alvarado said.
How do you keep a horse from lugging in? Rally up the rail, which is what Alvarado did in the first of his several Saturday stakes wins at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.