Disco Partner repeats in Jaipur Invitational

ELMONT, New York – Disco Partner’s favorite dance is The Jaipur.

His flying finish fell a neck and one horse short of victory in 2016, but for the second year in a row Disco Partner’s people got a taste of Saturday afternoon fever when Disco Partner won the Grade 2, $400,000 Jaipur Invitational on the Belmont Stakes undercard.

Disco Partner and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. rallied up the rail for a half-length win in 2017, but this year they came over the top, tagging Conquest Tsunami in the final half-furlong and going on to a one-length victory.

Disco Partner has become almost impossible to top in contests over the Belmont dance floor: He has won four in a row on the Belmont turf and for his career has eight wins and two seconds from 12 local starts.

Disco Partner might be a 6-year-old, but barring bad luck this was far from his last dance. Disco Partner excels in six-furlong races such as the Jaipur, but trainer Christophe Clement, who also was thrilled with pace-setter Pure Sensation’s third-place finish, believes the horse is quick enough for the 5 1/2-furlong Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill this year. That race already is circled on the calendar with the interim schedule yet to be determined.

The Jaipur is North America’s richest turf sprint outside the Breeders’ Cup and was an obvious goal for Disco Partner’s first half of 2018.

Clement prepped him in the Shakertown Stakes on April 7 at Keeneland, where Disco Partner finished a well-beaten third on a wet course.

“He doesn’t like that soft ground at all,” Ortiz said.

Disco Partner is a hold-up horse in turf sprints, but Clement in pre-race talk emphasized that Disco Partner need not drop to the tail of the field.

“The only thing I told Irad was if he breaks well it’s kind of foolish to always go all the way back to last,” Clement said.

Done, and done. Disco Partner had been eighth early in the 2017 Jaipur but this time he raced from fifth around the far turn as Pure Sensation, making a surprisingly clear early lead on a blazing fast course, went a quarter-mile in 22.16 and a half in 44.03. Conquest Tsunami pressed the pace, got on terms with Pure Sensation as the field kicked through the homestretch, and briefly held a lead.

“I was a little excited for a minute,” jockey Victor Espinoza said. “But it seemed like the wire was never going to come.”

Something else was coming – Disco Partner. Unleased after straightening for the finish, Disco Partner cut down three horses in front of him, took aim on the leader and whizzed past to the roar of a crowd that had bet him down to heavy favoritism. Disco Partner ran his final furlong in not much more than 11 seconds and stopped the timer in 1:06.74. He paid $5.10 to win.

“He’s got a big turn of foot. You ask him to go and – boom!” Ortiz said.

Conquest Tsunami was second by a head over a staying-on Pure Sensation, who had to be scratched from an intended start at Penn National last week because of a sore foot. Holding Gold rallied late and was another head back in fourth, followed home by Pocket Change, Stormy Liberal, Blind Ambition, and Frisky Magician.

Disco Partner and Pure Sensation are Patricia Generazio homebreds, and Clement hopes to get both to the Breeders’ Cup. Disco Partner, a New York-bred, is by Disco Rico out of Lulu’s Number, by Numerous. He made all the right moves in the Jaipur.