Charge It takes charge early, runs away with Suburban Stakes
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ELMONT, N.Y. - It was as easy on the track as it looked like it would be on paper.
Charge It, under John Velazquez, took the lead a quarter-mile into the race and basically galloped around the Belmont main track thereafter en route to a 4 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $339,500 Suburban Stakes.
Clapton, the longest shot on the board at 11-1, finished second by four lengths over Unbridled Bomber, who got third by a neck over Red Run. Tonal Impact finished last.
Following Charge It’s fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, his connections were strongly considering training the 4-year-old Tapit colt up to the Whitney. When this field came up on the light side, trainer Todd Pletcher felt Charge It could run in the Suburban and still make the $1 million Whitney on Aug. 5.
“It was a good win for him, it proved he could stay a mile and a quarter, the spacing’s pretty good if we want to consider the Whitney, which obviously is going to be a more difficult assignment,” said Pletcher, who trains Charge It for Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm. “He’s always been a horse that’s impressed us as a top-class horse, maybe he’s starting to put it all together now.”
Pletcher thought Charge It would be on the lead from the outset. But Velazquez told him Charge It broke a bit awkwardly and wound up following Red Run for the first quarter, which was run in 24.49 seconds.
Charge It, kept four paths off the rail by Velazquez to keep him relaxed, took over after the opening quarter and went on to set splits of 48.12 seconds, 1:11.80, 1:36.25; he covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.31 and was given a 106 Beyer Speed Figure. Charge It returned $3.30 to win as the 3-5 favorite.
“There wasn’t much speed and I knew somebody was going to try to [go]," Velazquez said. “My whole plan was I want to break out of there and get in a good rhythm and get him to drop the bit. I know him now, know he wants to be held together and get into that good rhythm. Once I got into the rhythm, I was comfortable with what he was doing and from them on it was pretty easy.”
Charge It, a son of Tapit, has now won four races from 10 starts and pushed his career earnings to $717,600. He added the Suburban to his 23-length victory in the Grade 3 Dwyer from a year ago.
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