Decorated Invader runs down Get Smokin in Hall of Fame Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Fast pace or slow, large field or small, a mile or 1 1/8 miles. Nothing seems to faze Decorated Invader.

“It’s a different scenario every time we run him, but the final outcome is the same,” said Christophe Clement, trainer of Decorated Invader. “That’s what good horses do, they win. They win more often than the others.”

Decorated Invader, under Joel Rosario, reeled in a loose-on-the-lead Get Smokin to win Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf at Saratoga by 1 1/4 lengths over Get Smokin, who held second by a nose over Domestic Spending. Moon Over Miami was fourth, while Ever Dangerous finished last. Gufo scratched.

The win was the third in as many starts this year for Decorated Invader and fifth from seven lifetime. A son of Declaration of War, Decorated Invader increased his purse earnings to $453,035 for West Point Thoroughbreds, William Freeman, William Sandbrook, and Cheryl Manning.

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In March, Decorated Invader won the Cutler Bay Stakes in a 12-horse field at Gulfstream Park that featured strong early fractions. In June, he won the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge in a short field at Belmont Park, where he sat two lengths off a modest early pace.

Saturday, an ambitious Get Smokin, under Jose Ortiz, opened up a 7 1/2-length lead after running a modest opening half-mile in 48.98 seconds.

Joel Rosario had Decorated Invader in second, just biding his time. He gradually cut into the lead around the far turn, but turning for home it looked briefly as though Get Smokin had something left.

Decorated Invader collared Get Smokin inside the eighth pole, but it wasn’t until inside the sixteenth pole that he began to draw away.

“I thought I was going to be a little closer, but when I saw the horse break like that and kind of go in the middle of the track I followed him just in the beginning a little but then I let my hose get comfortable and enjoy what he’s doing,” Rosario said. “I took my time until it was the right time to move.”

This was Decorated Invader’s first start at 1 1/8 miles, and Clement was glad to see the colt finish as well as he did.

“I thought he looked better in the last sixteenth of a mile than he did before that,” Clement said. “He actually won going away at the end.”

Decorated Invader covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.29 and returned $2.80 as the 2-5 favorite.

Clement said Decorated Invader and Gufo, who he only entered as insurance if Decorated Invader could not start, will both be pointed to the $500,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational going 1 3/16 miles here Aug. 15.