Bar of Gold scores first turf win in Yaddo Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bar of Gold won for the first time on turf and at the same time snapped the odds-on favorite Fourstar Crook’s eight-race winning streak after surging up the rail to a 1 1/4-length victory in Friday’s $150,000 Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga.

With Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, Bar of Gold rated a couple of lengths off the early pace of Freudie Anne while saving ground from the outset of the 1 1/16-mile Yaddo. Bar of Gold found room inside the tiring leader to strike the front and quickly open a commanding advantage near the furlong grounds before withstanding a belated rally from the favorite. Fourstar Crook angled wide while commencing her bid leaving the final bend, finished willingly but was left with too much to do, never seriously threatening the winner at the end. Her uncoupled stablemate Naughty Ack rallied belatedly to be third.

The loss was the first for Fourstar Crook since Oct. 8, 2015.

The win was the first around two turns for Bar of Gold, a homebred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by Chester and Mary Broman. She negotiated the distance on a firm course in 1:40.12 and paid $13.00. The win was also the first of the meet for her trainer John Kimmel.

“This horse has had some really difficult trips, I thought there were some races she should have won,” Kimmel said. “She’s been banging heads with some of the best ones. I thought I’d picked a soft spot here and I guess I forgot about Fourstar Crook. But she’s shown she can handle top-class horses when she’s on her game.”

Kimmel said he believes Bar of Gold relishes the firmer ground she got to compete over in the Yaddo.

“She likes to hear her feet rattle and Irad’s really getting to know her more now,” Kimmel said. “The last time the ground had a little give to it, Irad had to ask her early, and she ran out of gas a little going wide. Today he waited and waited and she shot through there like a cannon. She gives you a really quick turn of foot.”

Kimmel said he’ll think about getting Bar of Gold out of New York-bred company with the goal of trying to “finally win a graded stakes.”

Chad Brown, who trains Fourstar Crook, said “the winner got a really good trip, she got the jump on everybody, and it just didn’t work out for my two horses today with the position they were in. I thought they made a good run in the stretch, they just couldn’t get there.”