Channel Cat noses Gufo in Man O' War Stakes
ELMONT, N.Y. - Putting a horse on the lead going 1 1/4 miles on dirt worked so well for John Velazquez last week he figured he’d try the same tactics going 1 3/8 miles on turf this week.
Velazquez put Channel Cat on the lead in Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Man O’ War Stakes and, despite setting a solid pace, Channel Cat held off a late charge from favored Gufo to win the race by a nose at Belmont Park. It was a neck back to Moon Over Miami in third.
Shamrocket was fourth, followed by So High, Ziyad, Sovereign, and Field Pass.
The win came a week after Velazquez rode Medina Spirit to a front-running victory in the Kentucky Derby.
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The win continued a stretch of good fortune in New York for Calumet Farm, the owner of Channel Cat. Over the last seven months, Calumet has won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile with True Timber, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial with Bourbonic, and now the Man O’ War.
Jack Sisterson trained Channel Cat, who hadn’t won since he went gate to wire in in the Grade 2 Bowling Green in 2019 at Saratoga. Luis Saez rode him that day for trainer Todd Pletcher.
On Saturday, Velazquez said when he came to the paddock he told Sisterson - who was running Channel Cat for the fourth time - if Channel Cat broke well he was going to try and make the lead.
Channel Cat did break well and he and Field Pass, ridden by Saez, roared through the stretch head and head through a posted quarter-mile fraction of 22.69 seconds. Though the opening quarter is run down a straightaway, Velazquez believes the first split was wrong.
"I told Luis I know we’re going a little bit fast,” Velazquez said afterward. “But not 22 and change.”
Entering the clubhouse turn, Saez and Field Pass backed off a little and Velazquez was able to give his horse a little breather through a half-mile in 47.52, six furlongs in 1:12.45, and a mile in 1:37.49.
Turning for home, Ziyad moved into second but couldn’t sustain his run. Moon Over Miami was rallying along the rail and Gufo, last at the quarter pole, was flying five-wide under Joel Rosario. But under a persevering Velazquez, Channel Cat held on.
“I know he’s a fighter,” Velazquez said.
Channel Cat, a 6-year-old son of English Channel, covered the 1 3/8 miles in 2:13.34 and returned $18.40.
Sisterson was running Channel Cat back just three weeks after he finished second to Say the Word in the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland on April 17.
“I typically won’t run them back in three weeks, but he came back, put on weight, dappled out, he told me he wanted to run again,” Sisterson, based at Keeneland, said. “He breezed great, so we sent him up.”
Gufo was making his first start since he was beaten a neck in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby last November. Winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Derby last Oct. 3, Gufo was the 124-pound highweight in the Man O’ War, conceding six pounds to the winner.
“It’s just frustrating, because he actually ran a great race,” Christophe Clement, the trainer of Gufo, said. “Hats off to the winner. We were giving hm six pounds, which is a bit annoying when you get beat in a Grade 1. As usual, on the turn, when he gets running, it takes him awhile to get going. Then he finished very well. I’m very happy with the race, he just got beat.”