Drew's Gold romps in Gold Fever; will point towards Woody Stephens
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ELMONT, N.Y. – Hyped as “scary good” by trainer James Chapman entering Friday’s $100,000 Gold Fever Stakes, Drew’s Gold didn’t disappoint his conditioner as he drew off in the stretch to a 4 3/4-length victory in the six-furlong stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.
Under Jose Gomez, Drew’s Gold dueled outside of Andiamo a Firenze through fractions of 22.15 seconds for the quarter and 45.06 for the half, before opening up in the lane and then running away from a from a mild bid from odds-on favorite Squire Creek, who had to settled for second.
It was 1 1/2 lengths back to Joey Freshwater in third. Tuskegee Airmen was fourth, followed by Andiamo a Firenze. Prove Right, also trained by Chapman, scratched and will likely run in the Chick Lang next week at Pimlico.
The victory kept Drew’s Gold unbeaten from four starts, those wins coming at Churchill Downs, Laurel, Aqueduct, and Belmont.
Chapman was matter-of-fact after the win.
“That’s what he was supposed to do,” Chapman said. “He’s had issues. He’s had little things that I had to fix and he shouldn’t have been doing what he was doing. He has no issues now.”
Drew’s Gold, a son of Violence owned by Chapman and Stuart Tsujimoto, covered the six furlongs in 1:09.36 and returned $9.20 to win.
Both Chapman and Gomez said Drew’s Gold excels when he’s around another horse.
“He loves the competition,” Gomez said. “In the morning, he works a lot better in company. When he works solo, he just goes through the motions. But once he has a target, he’s a whole different horse – he gets aggressive and he likes to chase.”
Chapman said Drew’s Gold would be pointed to the Grade 1 Woody Stephens on the June 10 Belmont Stakes Day program.
- There were no winning tickets sold on the Belmont pick-6 Friday. There will be a carryover of $51,969 entering Saturday’s.
The Saturday pick-6 begins in race 6 with the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes for 3-year-olds.
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