Aqueduct: Inherit the Gold pulls away in Haynesfield Stakes

Compromised by a slow pace in each of his last two starts, Inherit the Gold got a better setup Sunday and rolled to a 6 1/4-length victory in the $75,000 Haynesfield Stakes at Aqueduct.

Socialsaul, who got pressured up front by Uncle T Seven, outlasted that rival by a half-length for second. Spa City Fever, who leapt at the start costing him all chance, finished fourth. Beautyinthepulpit was last in the stakes restricted to New York-breds.

Inherit the Gold won for the sixth time in nine starts over Aqueduct’s inner track. He went 4 for 4 over the inner track last winter. He had dropped his first two starts over the inner this winter, finishing second in the Queens County and fourth in the Alex M. Robb.

In the Robb, Spa City Fever got away with slow early fractions to win at odds of 34-1. On Sunday, when Spa City Fever reared at the break, Jim Hooper, trainer of Inherit the Gold was afraid Socialsaul was going to get away uncontested.

But Hooper said when he saw the first quarter go in 23.44 seconds “I felt pretty good about it.”

Inherit the Gold tracked Socialsaul and Uncle T Seven through a half-mile in 48.42 seconds and three-quarters in 1:12.95.

Junior Alvarado tipped Inherit the Gold three wide turning for home, and he took over inside the three-sixteenths pole. Inherit the Gold, a 6-year-old son of Gold Token, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.05 and returned $4.90 as the second choice.

“He was very, very strong today,” said Hooper, who trains Inherit the Gold for his wife Susanne Hooper and Glas-Tipp Stable. “He was back on his ‘A’ game. Junior hit him twice to keep him in the game, and he responded.”

Hooper’s primary objective the remainder of the meet with Inherit the Gold is the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior over the inner track on March 17. Inherit the Gold won the Excelsior last year, when it was run over the main track.

Inherit the Gold could use either the Mr. G. J. G. on Feb. 12 and/or the King’s Point on March 3 as preps.

Alvarado, who won two races on the card, was involved in a spill while galloping out following the ninth race, but he was uninjured. His horse, Sheeds Paisley, slammed on the brakes to avoid a fallen horse and unseated him. It was the third time in 16 days that Alvarado was unseated from a horse.

Irad Ortiz Jr., who was unseated when his mount, the 5-year-old maiden Connect With Trax, stumbled galloping out after the ninth was removed from the track on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to First Aid, but was released. He, too, escaped injury.