Calder: Hello Prince romps in Birdonthewire

MIAMI - Hello Prince gave Daniel Pita the first stakes victory of his training career and did so in style, drawing off to an easy six-length decision over the previously undefeated Seattle Ex in Saturday's $100,000 Birdonthewire Stakes at Calder.

Hello Prince, a 2-year-old son of Halo's Image, bounced back from a pair of poor performances in the opening two legs of the Florida Stallion Stakes to defeat allowance horses easily here on Sept. 10. He proved that effort was not a fluke after winning an early speed duel with Seattle Ex and Mel Beach and then cruising home to his third win in six career starts in the six-furlong Birdonthewire.

Seattle Ex, who rallied from mid-pack to capture his only previous start, showed improved speed to contest the early pace but could not keep up with the winner leaving the backstretch. To his credit, Seattle Ex continued on gamely to outlast Angelofdistinction, Hello Prince's uncoupled stablemate, by a neck to finish second.

Hello Prince, ridden by Jose Garcia, completed the distance in 1:11.60 and paid $3.60 as the favorite in a scratch-reduced field of only five juvenile colts.

"We've always thought a lot of him and he ran so well in his first two races, but then he had throat problems and displaced [his palate] in the two Stallion Stakes races," said Pita, who served as an assistant for trainer Pablo Andrade after coming to this country from his native Venezuela. "He had a surgical procedure to correct I, and we made some other adjustments with his bit and other things. Now he's becoming the horse we thought he could be."

Hello Prince is eligible for the 1 1/16-mile and one sixteenth In Reality, final leg of the open division of the Stallion Stakes, on Oct. 15.