Coal Front holds off Copper Bullet in Razorback Handicap

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Coal Front overcame post 14 and a fast-closing bid by Copper Bullet to win his two-turn debut as the highweight in the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap on Monday at Oaklawn.

Coal Front won by a neck over Copper Bullet, who was 1 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Rated R Superstar.

The Razorback was one of three stakes on the card, with Super Steed upsetting the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes at 62-1 and She’s a Julie delivering as the favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Bayakoa.

Coal Front ($4.60) moved up and over shortly after the start of the Razorback, settling into a tracking position behind All Out Blitz as that one set fractions of 22.78 seconds for the opening quarter, 46.59 for the half-mile and 1:11.84 for six furlongs. Coal Front pushed past the leader coming to the eighth pole, then held off Copper Bullet to cover the 1 1/16 miles on a track rated fast in 1:43.45.

“I know he’s very quick,” winning rider John Velazquez said. “I wasn’t so much worried about the post out there. Down the backside he settled really well. At the quarter pole, I asked him and he responded really well for a horse going two turns – seven furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth – for the first time today. It was impressive.”

Todd Pletcher trains Coal Front for the partnership of Bob LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners.

Coal Front was winning his second straight stakes behind the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park. He was the 120-pound starting highweight in the Razorback. Coal Front is a son of Stay Thirsty. He has now won 6 of 8 starts and with the first-place check of $300,000 on Monday improved his career earnings to $777,280.

Pletcher and Velazquez teamed with one other winner on the card, Intrepid Heart, who won his career debut in the third race. The $750,000 auction buy races for Robert and Lawana Low, who captured last year’s Arkansas Derby with Magnum Moon. Intrepid Heart was a 7 1/4-length winner of the one-mile maiden special weight that had a purse of $93,000. He’s a son of Tapit and a half-brother to Grade 2 winner and Belmont Stakes runner-up Commissioner.