Experience pays off for juveniles

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Experience counts.

El Kabeir and Two Weeks Off, each of whom had a start at the meet, won split divisions of a 2-year-old maiden race on Saturday’s card at Saratoga.

El Kabeir, a son of Scat Daddy, was quite impressive, rolling to a 10 3/4-length victory over the Todd Pletcher-trained Royal Son, who also was making his second start.

El Kabeir had finished third behind Blofeld in a five-furlong maiden race going five furlongs here Aug. 14. John Terranova had heard from everybody that he was entering the horse back on rather short notice.

“That’s what everyone had been telling me,” Terranova said. “It was up to him. It wasn’t really up to me. He made me enter him. He really did.”

Under Irad Ortiz Jr., El Kabeir outsprinted Royal Son to the front and set strong fractions of 22.74 seconds and 44.98 for the half-mile. In the stretch, he drew away from the field and covered seven furlongs in 1:22.16.

“Who expects that?” Terranova said. “But I knew he was a good horse. He always trained like a good horse since the beginning.”

Terranova mentioned the Grade 1 Champagne as a possible next start for El Kabeir, who is owned by Ahmed Zayat.

In the first division, a pace-pressing Two Weeks Off defeated Easy Comparison by 1 3/4 lengths, running seven furlongs in 1:23.50. In his debut, Two Weeks Off finished second to Requite, who is running in Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful here.

Pletcher, the trainer of Two Weeks Off, said he was thinking of waiting to run Two Weeks Off until a one-mile race Sept. 12 at Belmont, but when the racing office split the race into two divisions, he opted to run here.

“Pretty straightforward – he broke sharp, put himself in a good position, Johnny [Velazquez] rode him very confidently, and I thought he responded when he asked him,” Pletcher said.

The disappointment of the race was Gold Shield, a royally bred, $1 million yearling purchase who finished seventh, beaten 12 lengths.

“Dirt hit him in the face a little bit, and he backed out of it,” said Joel Rosario, who rode Gold Shield. “It took a lot of time to get him into the race. He came with a little bit of run.”