Belmont: Compliance Officer, Gitchee Goomie win turf stakes for New York-breds

Compliance Officer began defense of his New York-bred turf championship with a good-looking return to the races, taking Sunday’s $125,000 Kingston Stakes by three-quarters of a length at Belmont Park.

Meanwhile, Gitchee Goomie got first jump on defending statebred female turf champion Hessonite and held off that filly’s late charge for a half-length victory in the $125,000 Mount Vernon Stakes for fillies and mares.

Compliance Officer, claimed for $25,000 by Thomas La Marca and Bruce Brown 54 weeks ago, won for the seventh time in eight starts since and is 6 for 6 against statebred competition. He added the Kingston to victories in the West Point, Ashley T. Cole, and Mohawk, completing a sweep of the four traditional stakes for New York-breds held on this circuit.

Making his first start since last Dec. 3, Compliance Officer broke sharp but was quickly reined in to fourth by jockey Javier Castellano.

Compliance Officer raced within three lengths of the lead before launching his four-wide bid around the turn. He got first run on Lubash, who was steadied repeatedly by Jose Lezcano before finding room in upper stretch along the rail.

Lubash finished second by 1 3/4 lengths over Street Game.

Compliance Officer, a 6-year-old gelded son of Officer, ran a mile in 1:37.11 over a good Widener turf course and returned $4.30 as the favorite.

“It was a little stressful because you never really know how they’ll come back,” Brown said. “You think he’s doing really well, but until you actually get him out there and in the heat of battle, you’re not really sure what’s going to happen. But he picked up right where he left off and he should only get better from here on in.”

About an hour earlier, Gitchee Goomie got first run on Hessonite and held that one at bay in the last 100 yards to take the Mount Vernon by one-half length. Last year, Gitchee Goomie won the Mount Vernon, also by one-half length, over Paraiba. Both Paraiba and Hessonite are trained by David Donk.

Under Alan Garcia, Gitchee Goomie was last though the early stages while Risky Rachel, trying turf for the first time, set fractions of 25.34 seconds for the quarter and 50.64 for the half-mile.

Gitchee Goomie made a three wide rally around the far turn - and kept Hessonite and Ramon Dominguez bottled up in the process - opened up a clear advantage in midstretch and got to the wire first. Gitchee Goomie, a 5-year-old daughter of City Zip, covered the mile in 1:38.64 and returned $4.50 as the favorite.

“She was getting over the ground fine. She was happy, and when it was time to move I decided to move a little early to get a better position turning for home,” Garcia said. “She did it the right way.”

Hessonite finished second by two lengths over Rogue’s Jewel.

Gitchee Goomie, owned by Patsy Symons and trained by Rick Violette, now has a 6-9-1 record from 18 starts.

Violette said he would seek to win a graded stakes with Gitchee Goomie this year. She has twice finished second in the Grade 3 Beaugay and in 2010, as a 3-year-old, she was third in the Grade 1 Garden City.