Castellano reaches milestone as Runaway Lute wins Hudson

Javier Castellano added his name to the exclusive club of jockeys to have won 5,000 races in their career by guiding the much-improved Runaway Lute to a three-quarter-length decision over Gold for the King in Saturday’s $250,000 Hudson Stakes at Belmont Park.

Castellano, who posted victory No. 4,999 one race earlier with a popular win aboard Offering Plan in the Mohawk, made a decisive move with Runaway Lute to grab a short advantage after an opening quarter in 23.13 seconds. The pair extended their lead on the turn, settled into the stretch with a comfortable advantage, then held safe the 2-1 favorite under steady urging to the wire.

Gold for the King had only one horse beaten in the run down the backstretch, advanced wide, losing considerable ground around the turn, continued willingly down the stretch, but could not reach the winner. Celtic Chaos came widest of all off the turn while rallying belatedly to finish another three parts of a length back in third.

The win was the second in a row for Runaway Lute, who has been lightly raced but is in the best form of his career at age 4. The Hudson was his first start since easily defeating allowance competition by 4 1/4 widening lengths at Belmont on July 4.

Trained by Gary Contessa for Harold Lerner and Nehoc Stables, Runaway Lute completed 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.70 and paid $13.40.

“It's been a lot of work getting him to this race,” said Contessa. “He's the kind of horse where every time you think you're going in the right direction, he takes a step back. He has a foot bruise, he has this, he has that. But when he gets it all together, every so often, everything goes right.

“He had trained really well for this race, but believe me, until the gate opens and he comes out, I'm [on edge] because anything can happen. He has a history of flipping in the paddock, flipping in the gate, doing stupid things. He was nice [today], and to have Castellano's 5,000th winner, it’s an honor.”