Blended Citizen notches well-done win in Jeff Ruby Steaks
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
FLORENCE, Ky. – California’s strength in the 3-year-old male division apparently isn’t limited to dirt horses. It seems their turf and synthetic horses are quite skilled, too.
Blended Citizen suggested as much Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks on Turfway Park’s synthetic Polytrack surface, surging to victory in the closing yards after diving to the inside down the stretch under Kyle Frey.
The triumph gave the colt the first stakes win of his career following a fourth this winter in the Eddie Logan Stakes on grass at Santa Anita and a third in the El Camino Real Derby on synthetic at Golden Gate. As in those races, Blended Citizen finished powerfully from the rear of the pack in the Jeff Ruby.
Frey said he could sense he was loaded with horse, and it was simply a matter of securing a favorable trip. He felt rivals in front of him struggling after they chased frontrunner Mugaritz through splits of 48.77 seconds and 1:12.55 in the 1 1/8-mile Jeff Ruby.
“With the way that horse was moving at the three-eighths pole, all I needed was an opening,” Frey said. “Sure enough, the rail opened. I knew it hadn’t been played too good on for the day, but I had so much momentum, nothing was going to stop me.”
A 3-year-old son of Proud Citizen, Blended Citizen ($14.40) won by a neck over Pony Up, another horse that has raced predominantly on turf. Arawak was a length farther back in third. Blended Citizen earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure.
Hazit, the 3-1 favorite, ran last of 12 after growing eager behind horses after stumbling at the break.
No official time was listed for the race by Equibase after what seemed a timing malfunction. A time of 1:50.15 was listed on the video feed, but it was posted before the winner even crossed the wire, suggesting something caused the timing mechanism at the finish to trigger early.
Winning trainer Doug O’Neill was not at Turfway Park on Saturday to shed light on future plans, but owners Steve Young and Greg Hall, in attendance from California, seemed eager in the glow of victory to test the colt in a dirt stakes race to see if the horse could land a spot in the Kentucky Derby. He was not made an original Kentucky Derby nominee, but could become one.
He earned 20 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, down from the 50 the winner of this race received in prior years. His collective point tally from qualifying races is 22.
Typically, a horse needs points in the low to mid 20s to gain entrance to the Derby, though the total differs from year to year. This would seem to suggest that a start in another Kentucky Derby prep race on dirt might be needed to assure his Derby participation – unless his connections want to gamble that a relatively low point total can get their horse into the race.
To date he has been unplaced in three dirt starts, though all three races came early in his career and two came in sprints.
The Jeff Ruby, run for the 47th time Saturday under a variety of names, has produced two Derby winners: Lil E. Tee in 1992 and Animal Kingdom in 2011.
