Calder: Honorable Pic right at home

MIAMI - Honorable Pic continued his dominance over the local turf course, registering his fourth victory in as many starts here after rallying to a 1 3/4-length victory over Sejm's Madness in Saturday's $55,950 Linear Handicap.

Honorable Pic finished a troubled seventh when he shipped out of town last month for Churchill Downs's Aegon Turf Stakes, stumbling at the break and failing to handle the turn cleanly after rushing up to head eventual winner Morluc leaving the backstretch. But he had no such problem negotiating the bend in the Linear, hugging the hedge while stalking the early pace of Sam's Concorde before slipping through to take command in early stretch, then edging away to a convincing win.

Sejm's Madness was forced to race extremely wide into the stretch while launching his bid and outfinished the tiring Sam's Concorde by a head to be second.

Honorable Pic paid $5.60 as the favorite after covering five furlongs in 55.78 seconds under jockey Horacio Karamanos.

"He hesitated a bit at the start, I think he might have fallen asleep just a bit because of the delay, but it probably worked to his benefit," said Paradise. "This horse tends to have trouble with the turns when he hits them full throttle so I told Horacio to steady him and take it easy going into the turn then let him go coming out and everything worked out according to plan."

Paradise said Honorable Pic would likely make his next start July 14 in the $100,000 Calder Turf Sprint.