Clear Vision's upset in Tropical Turf gives trainer O'Connor big boost

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Grade 3 Tropical Turf was supposed to produce a familiar result Saturday at Gulfstream Park, but it was anything but.

Clear Vision pulled a 10-1 upset of the $100,000 Tropical Turf, defeating two favorites trained by Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown when giving his 23-year-old trainer, Matthew O’Connor, easily the biggest victory of a training career that began less than two years ago.

“This was about youth coming into the business,” said Anthony Bonomo, who with his wife, Mary Ann, claimed Clear Vision for $25,000 at Belmont Park in October under their MEB Stables banner. “It’s about young kids bringing this business back.”

Clear Vision, a 6-year-old gelding, returned $23.40 after finishing the one-mile turf race in 1:35.36.

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Over a firm turf, and amid temperatures in the high 70s on a mostly cloudy afternoon, Clear Vision and jockey Julien Leparoux were prominent from the opening bell. After briefly conceding the lead down the backstretch to 48-1 shot Belgrano, Clear Vision reassumed command turning for home, with serious threats failing to materialize from Value Proposition, the 2-1 second choice trained by Brown, nor Largent, the 7-10 favorite trained by Pletcher.

“I was waiting for somebody to come, but my horse dug in and they never got to me,” Leparoux said.

Value Proposition, winner of the Oyster Bay and Red Bank within recent months, finished two lengths behind the winner and another 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Belgrano. Largent, ridden by Luis Saez when making his first start since a runner-up finish nearly a year ago in the Pegasus World Cup Turf, had no apparent excuse when another length back in fourth in the field of seven older horses.

Paco Lopez replaced Irad Ortiz Jr. on Value Proposition because Ortiz took off the balance of his weekend mounts after suffering a minor knee injury in a starting-gate accident prior to the eighth race Friday.

Clear Vision, a Kentucky-bred by Artie Schiller, won for the sixth time in 19 starts. He is one of just four horses overseen at the Palm Meadows training center by O’Connor, a Long Island, N.Y., native who worked under Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito before going out on his own in early 2020. O’Connor saddled his first winner here in April 2020.

Bonomo said O’Connor is “the son of my best friend,” which is partly why he has given the youthful trainer an opportunity to show what he can do. “He calls me his uncle, which tells you something about how happy I am for him. This is great.”

This was the first stakes win, and just the fourth overall, for O’Connor, and it was the first graded win for MEB.

The $2 exacta (2-4) paid $76.20, the $1 trifecta (2-4-7) returned $570.60, and the 10-cent superfecta (2-4-7-1) was worth $114.96.

Rainbow 6 pays $100,823

The Tropical Turf was part of the Rainbow 6 (races 6-11), which had been expected to draw several million dollars in new handle when being forced out Saturday – that is, until the jackpot was swept by one winning ticket Friday for a $1.2 million windfall.

The mandatory disbursement of the Rainbow 6 pool remained in effect Saturday, and with the carryover jackpot starting empty, new handle was still a very strong $1,260,473. There were no winning favorites, resulting in each perfect 20-cent ticket returning $100,823.

The winning numbers were 2-10-2-9-1-5, with their respective odds being 5-2, 4-1, 10-1, 27-1, 4-1, and 4-1.

The Rainbow 6 starts anew Sunday with a $150,000 pool guarantee. First post for the 10-race card is 12:30 p.m. Eastern.