Breeders Crown: Confederate dominates in 3-Year-Old Colt Pace final

Soaking rain left the track sloppy and he wound up first-over, but nothing was stopping Confederate in Saturday night's $600,000 Breeders Crown 3-Year-Old Colt Pace final as he won by four lengths in 1:48 1/5 and put another stamp on his Horse of the Year season.

It's My Show (Scott Zeron) hustled to the lead from post nine in a 25 3/5 quarter, but David Miller wheeled out of fourth with Stockade Seelster on the first turn and moved up to take the top spot away from It's My Show past that marker. Confederate and driver Tim Tetrick settled in the fifth spot and waited until just after the 53 4/5 half to commence an uncovered march.

Stockade Seelster held onto the front at the 1:22 1/5 three-quarters, but Confederate had blitzed his way into second at that station, and he sustained his bid into the lane to take charge. From there it was all Confederate as he pulled away to the wire, winning with ease and getting a measure of redemption for his defeat in the Breeders Crown a year ago. Stockade Seelster raced very well and held second from Cannibal (Yannick Gingras). El Rey (Dexter Dunn) and Coach Stefanos (Trace Tetrick) rounded out the top five.

"He does it all on his own. He's absolutely superb. We've had a couple little blemishes with him, and he's made me nervous this week, but he's unbelievable," beamed winning trainer Brett Pelling. "He's just so fast, he's so willing, and he's just an absolutely fantastic horse. I didn't really have time to think about (the off track). There are so many other things going on, and they're all in the same boat together. I knew the surface was actually good. He's been on an off-track in the morning, so not really a big deal.

"He's faster than any horse I've ever been around. Our game is centered around speed these days, and he's the fastest horse I've ever been around."

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Trained by Pelling for Diamond Creek Farm and their racing operation, the victorious Sweet Lou colt has 17 wins, two seconds and a third from 20 career starts, has banked $1,988,629 and paid $2.60 to win as the 1-5 favorite.

"It's wonderful. He's a homebred and it's a family that we started way back when I first got started. The culmination of this is the best horse we've ever had. I'd put him up against any 3-year-old ever," offered Adam Bowden from Diamond Creek Farm. "We kind of hoped that he was this kind of horse all along. Brian (Brown) did a great job and Brett's polished it off. He's the most amazing horse.

"He's the fastest horse I've seen, and Tim was dumbfounded. He is so fast."