Chattel ($47) makes Skidmore first stakes win for McFarlane

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Chattel wasn’t quick enough early in Friday’s $100,000 Skidmore Stakes, but he was sure plenty fast enough late.

Sitting sixth early on after unable to attend the pace under Kendrick Carmouche, Chattel tipped into the two-path turning for home and cruised past the pacesetting Gins and Tins in midstretch and drew off to a 3 1/4-length victory in the Skidmore, a stakes for 2-year-old turf sprinters at Saratoga.

Swamp Rat rallied to get second by a length over Good Good, who nosed out Gins and Tins for third.

The win gave trainer Brandon McFarlane his first stakes victory in his first trip to Saratoga. The 31-year-old McFarlane has been out on his own for two years after working for the Mid-Atlantic-based Dane Kobiskie for six years.

Chattel had raced three times before winning a maiden turf sprint at Laurel on July 13. In his previous trip to New York, Chattel was beaten a nose by Yes and Yes at Belmont. Yes and Yes hadn’t run since that May 25 race. He finished eighth of nine at 5-1 on Friday.

“The experience is huge because once you win you got to wait until that stake,” McFarlane said. “We got a few [races] under the belt and we’re fit.”

McFarlane last week at Laurel gave Chattel the experience of being behind horses in a workout. That, too, paid dividends when Chattel was unable to gain a forward position out of the gate.

Carmouche said he tried to get Chattel up close early, but others wanted the lead more. So he eased the horse back to sixth, about four lengths off the pace set by Gins and Tins, and pressed by Carter Cat.

Carmouche was able to get an unimpeded inside trip, tipped to the two path turning for home, and Chattel kicked on in the stretch.

“I couldn’t get him up close, a couple of horses wanted to go on with it,” Carmouche said. “I slowly eased him back and, man, he sat directly in my hands. At the half-mile pole, when he switched leads and he never [drifted] out … I just had to wait for a hole. You could feel it underneath me he was going to win.”

Chattel, a son of Giant Oak bred by the equine studies program at the University of Kentucky, covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.51 over a “good” turf course and returned $47 as the second-longest shot on the board.

“He got a little farther back than I thought because he’s real quick out of the gate,” McFarlane said. “I knew he could pass because I schooled him behind horses last week.”

Chattel is owned by David Baxter, who bought the horse privately from a farm that he uses to break his young horses.

“We bought him based on looks more than anything else,” Baxter said. “From what I hear, the kids at the University of Kentucky do a real good job picking out these horses to breed and they’ve had some success in the past. Obviously, they knew what they were doing with this one.”