Crude Velocity catches Englishman in Pat Day Mile
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In a matchup of two exceptionally gifted and fast 3-year-olds, Crude Velocity chased, collared and ultimately drew away from Englishman to win Saturday’s Grade 2, $741,330 Pat Day Mile by 3 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.
Englishman, who set strong early fractions under Jose Ortiz, finished second, 2 3/4 lengths clear of Stop the Car.
Both Crude Velocity and Englishman had won their first two starts so impressively that the word freak was used to describe both colts. Neither did much to dispel that description; perhaps Englishman will just have to cut back slightly in distance.
Breaking from the rail Saturday, Englishman jumped to a one-length lead while running an opening quarter in 22.06 seconds. Crude Velocity, who was off a step slow under Florent Geroux, quickly moved into second and was within a half-length after a half-mile in 44.20. Crude Velocity remained in chase mode until just inside the eighth pole, where he got to and eventually passed Englishman.
Crude Velocity, a son of Beau Liam owned by CSLR Racing Partners, covered the mile in 1:33.87 - .10 faster than the 5-year-old Tour Player ran winning the Knicks Go Stakes earlier on the card - and returned $5.14 as the favorite.
Crude Velocity didn’t get to the races until March 7, when he overcame a tardy start to win his maiden by a neck over next-out winner Civil Liberty. Baffert took blinkers off Crude Velocity after his debut win and he won a first-level allowance sprint on the undercard of the April 4 Santa Anita Derby.
“He broke a touch slow again today, that’s him,” Geroux said. “He’s well schooled, but that’s just how he comes out of the gate. After that, he was a lot more professional today. He put me right in the spot.
“Since blinkers have been removed, he’s been a dream to ride,” Geroux added. “He was able to follow very fast fractions, very easily. He asked me for a little breather and at the three-eighths pole I gave him a little bit of a chance and when he took a nice deep breath then I went head and attacked Englishman before the quarter pole. Englishman was trying, but we won the battle today.”
The performance proved what Baffert thought of Crude Velocity.
“I’m glad he ran the way I thought he would,” Baffert said. “I could have run him in the Santa Anita Derby, but when you have a horse with this kind of freaky talent you want to manage them the right way. I don’t want to cook him. If he could have run a little bit earlier, he would have been a Derby horse.”
Baffert was non-committal when asked if he would run him back in two weeks in the Preakness.
Englishman won each of his first two starts on the front end by more than seven lengths. Those races were at seven and then six furlongs. Saturday, the mile proved too far and Crude Velocity proved a bit too much.
“They went really fast,” said Cherie DeVaux, the trainer of Englishman. “A mile is probably a touch too far. He probably could get it if he had the lead by himself. It’s a little too hard to keep going that fast.”
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