Carrick ($78.20) outlasts Analyze It in Secretariat Stakes

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – On May 12 at Belmont Park a horse named Carrick debuted in a $40,000 maiden-claiming race. Just three months later he won a race worth 10 times that amount, wearing down odds-on favorite Analyze It to take the Grade 1, $400,000 Secretariat Stakes by a neck on Saturday at Arlington.

Carrick rated kindly just behind a fast-moving lead pack under John Velazquez, came wide closing on the front at the three-sixteenths pole, and took Analyze It’s measure in the final half-furlong as the odds-on favorite tried to get back on terms.

It was the second career Grade 1 for English import trainer Tom Morley following Haveyougoneaway’s score in the Ballerina Stakes. Morley and owner Donegal Racing principal Jerry Crawford boldly chose the Secretariat over a first-level allowance race at Saratoga.

“I talked to him about the options and Jerry never flinched,” said Morley, reached by phone in New York.

Carrick’s connections believed in him, but the betting markets were skeptical, as Carrick paid $78.20 to win. Purchased for $75,000 at auction, Carrick is a son of Giant’s Causeway and the Distorted Humor mare How Far to Heaven, and while he trained all right on dirt, Morley said, Carrick had hints of being a turf horse, and to run him in a race over a distance of ground, grass was selected for a first start. Morley felt Carrick hadn’t tipped his hand enough to be claimed first out, and, fortunately, he was right.

Carrick won his debut by open lengths, captured a non-winners-of-two starter allowance at Belmont second out, and finished third making his stakes debut in the Kent at Delaware Park on July 14. None of that really added up to beating Analyze It, but Carrick obviously has come a long way in a short time.

“The horse was a very weak, backward individual when he came to me at the beginning of the year,” Morley said. “What he’s done physically since his first start is why he is where he is now. He’s a lot stronger all the way through his frame.”

Morley, who stayed behind in New York on Saturday because of starters there and a yearling sale, said Carrick relaxed better in the paddock Saturday than he had in Delaware, and he certainly relaxed during the race. Not so much for the front-runners, with Real Story away alertly from the rail and Hunting Horn showing surprising speed from post 13 to come up and contest a hot opening quarter in a wind-aided 22.80.

Analyze It and Jose Ortiz settled just behind the speed as the pace moderated down the backstretch, the half going in 47.27, six furlongs in 1:11.62. Analyze It came up to tackle the two leaders at the top of the stretch, collared them, but then had to brace for Carrick’s challenge. On paper it shouldn’t have been a fair fight. On the track, it was the longshot who was doing the better work.

“We went a little fast early, but I stuck to my game plan,” said Ortiz, Analyze It’s jockey. “Across the wire the first time I was in a good position. I waited as long as I could, but he just got nailed. He just grinded it out from the quarter pole to the wire.”

It was the third straight second-place finish – and second in a Grade 1 – for Analyze It, who is unbeaten and untested up to 1 1/16 miles and winless now in three starts longer than that.

“He’s certainly running like a cutback in distance is in order,” trainer Chad Brown said. “He can run a mile and a quarter, but a touch shorter is probably better.”

Carrick ran 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.04 on a course rated good as the top two drew clear from the rest of the pack. It was 2 3/4 lengths back to longshot third-place finisher Bandua, who had a nose on Platinum Warrior. Captivating Moon was a neck farther back in fifth and was followed by Ming, Untamed Domain, Hunting Horn, Real Story, Sniper Kitten, Dubby Dubbie, Lucius Tiberius, and Pont du Gard.

Far ahead of those trailing horses was a victor whose price suggested he might finish among them. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it,” said Morley of the bomber who got his neck in front of the favorite Saturday.