Cocked and Loaded rebounds to win Iroquois

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The aptly named Cocked and Loaded came to the half-mile pole of the Grade 3, $150,000 Iroquois Stakes full of run, pounced once given his cue, and handily won by two lengths as the road to the Kentucky Derby formally began right where it will end – under the twin spires of Churchill Downs.

"He just took off with me," said jockey Emmanuel Esquivel, who capped a three-win day with the score.

With the victory in the Iroquois, a designated Win and You're In event, Cocked and Loaded ($21) earned a berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. He also earned 10 points toward qualifying for the 2016 Kentucky Derby, as the Iroquois was the first of 35 races offering points toward next spring’s classic.

The win continued a busy campaign for Cocked and Loaded, who has made his five starts at five different tracks for trainer Larry Rivelli. The colt won his first two starts, with a debut score at Keeneland and a win in the Tremont Stakes at Belmont Park. He then was sixth in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga and fifth in the Arlington-Washington Futurity in Chicago, beaten as the favorite in both Grade 3 events.

"This horse is really classy,” said Esquivel, who was aboard for the first time. “I think his best races, it looks like he loves the dirt. He likes it better than the Poly [at Arlington], that's for sure."

Cocked and Loaded sat in fourth early as Condominium, with pressure from Tyro Stakes winner Expected Ruler on his inside, took the field through honest opening splits of 22.69 and 46.29 seconds, with those two briefly separating themselves from the field. The pack closed in on the leaders on the far turn, with Cocked and Loaded the first to pounce, easily swooping by and opening up better than two lengths. He was never seriously threatened thereafter, finishing the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.94.

“I wanted to be pretty close to the lead without really forcing him,” Esquivel said. “By the half-mile pole, I got to the ones in front pretty easy, and I just wanted to see if I had any horse. When I just motioned him a little, he just took off with me. At that point, I didn't want to try to take him back again. I just let him keep on going, and he felt comfortable turning for home.”

Rated R Superstar, who had raced back in seventh early, made a solid run but flattened out late to be second, a length ahead of Unbridled Outlaw in third. The favored Conquest Windycity checked in fourth.

Rivelli, speaking to Churchill Downs staff by phone later in the evening, said he plans to train Cocked and Loaded straight up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.