Change of strategy helps Turned Aside turn it around in Quick Call
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Turned Aside lost three times to Jack and Noah, so trainer Linda Rice and owner Paul Pompa Jr. thought it was time for a change of strategy.
Rice and Pompa did not want jockey Jose Lezcano to let the speedy Jack and Noah have an easy lead, so they instructed him to put Turned Aside into the race early. That strategy, coupled with a slow start by Jack and Noah, paid off Friday at Saratoga as Turned Aside scored a 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3, $100,000 Quick Call Stakes. Old Chestnut rallied for second, a neck in front of Fore Left.
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Flap Jack was fourth, followed by High Cruise and Jack and Noah, the 4-5 favorite who rushed to the front after his tardy beginning.
“Paul and I discussed it earlier and we just felt if we didn’t engage early we were just going to hand it over to Jack and Noah and we’ve done that enough already,” Rice said.
Turned Aside’s previous three losses to Jack and Noah came at Belmont, twice -- including a one-length loss last month in the Sir Cat Stakes -- and Aqueduct. Rice said she was hoping a change of courses might result in a change of results.
“The horse had been training great all spring and I thought well, maybe we could turn the tables on him on a different course,” Rice said.
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Turned Aside, under Jose Lezcano, actually broke on top, while Jack and Noah was last out of the gate. John Velazquez rushed Jack and Noah to the front and he was in between horses, with High Cruise to his inside and Turned Aside to his outside.
Approaching the top of the stretch, Lezcano had Turned Aside on equal terms with those two and straightening away in the lane, Turned Aside took control.
“My horse broke very sharp and was right there when I asked him,” Lezcano said. “The horse on the lead was lugging out a little, but I held my position and when I asked him, he gave me everything.”
Turned Aside, a 3-year-old son of American Pharoah, covered the six furlongs in 1:01.99 over firm ground and returned $6.50 as the second choice.
The win was the second on the card for the Rice-Lezcano team. Rice has won six races at the meet, third in the standings.