Breeders' Cup Juvenile: Forte's late move too much for Cave Rock
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The first unbeatable horse in this year’s Breeders’ Cup was beaten.
Cave Rock, a 2-5 favorite in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile off dynamic wins in his first three starts, was pressed early on by longshot Hurricane J and though Cave Rock took the field into deep stretch, he couldn’t hold off the late run of Forte, who tackled Cave Rock at the sixteenth pole and went on to win by 1 1/2 lengths at Keeneland.
Cave Rock finished second by 2 1/4 lengths over National Treasure, as Bob Baffert-trained runners finished second and third.
Blazing Sevens was fourth, followed by Curly Jack, Verifying, Hurricane J, Congruent, and Wound Up. Lost Ark was eased in the stretch and walked off.
Cave Rock, at 2-5 may be the shortest-priced favorite of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races, though Flightline figures to be in that neighborhood in Saturday’s $6 million Classic.
Forte added the Juvenile to Grade 1 stakes victories earlier in the year in the Hopeful at Saratoga and Breeders’ Futurity here earlier in the meet. He will undoubtedly be voted champion 2-year-old male.
“We’ve always had a lot of confidence in this horse, he came in early and he’s always trained really well,” said Todd Pletcher, who trains Forte for owners Mike Repole and the St. Elias Stable of Vinnie and Teresa Viola. “The only thing he’s ever done that surprised me was lose the Sanford. But looking back at that, it was probably something that paid off. He a lot of experience, lot of kickback that day and I’m really proud of him.”
A fourth in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga is the colt’s lone in five starts.
On paper, it looked like Cave Rock could control things on the lead in the Juvenile as he did in his previous three races, which included two Grade 1 stakes victories.
But Hurricane J, breaking from the rail under Joe Talamo, went for the lead and he and Cave Rock, under Juan Hernandez, were head-and-head through an opening quarter of 22.90 seconds.
Cave Rock, about two paths away from Hurricane J down the backside, had a half-length lead after a half-mile in 47.01 seconds. Cave Rock extended his lead into and around the turn, but while his pursuers were beginning to stall, Forte was revving up.
After saving ground while in fifth, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. switched him to the outside approaching the top of the lane. Forte confronted Cave Rock in mid-stretch, and edged away from him in the final sixteenth to get the victory.
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“At the half-mile I started making my move inside, my horse responded, was going forward,” Ortiz said. “I was able to hit the clear whenever I wanted and I hit him once he kept going forward.”
Ortiz said when Forte got to Cave Rock he had “to work a little harder. I didn’t want to get close to him. I tried to stay away from him. [Cave Rock] is a nice horse, we respect him, but my horse won today.”
Forte, a son of Violence, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.06 and returned $12.04 as the second choice. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, above the 96 par for the race.
“I thought we were in a good spot, it was a matter of whether we could run him down,” said Pletcher, who won his third Juvenile. “Looked like a good sustained run. He came off the turn, he was picking them up and then naturally [Cave Rock] found a little more and he kept finding too. It was a big effort.”
Baffert, Cave Rock’s trainer, thought his horse could be in trouble when he saw the opening quarter-mile fraction.
“I saw that first quarter, I was worried about that,” Baffert said, who added Hernandez “did a good job staying away from [Hurricane J]. He never got him to switch leads. Forte’s a good horse too, got to give him credit.”
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