Fair Grounds: Intense Holiday wins Risen Star Stakes by a nose

NEW ORLEANS – The connections of Intense Holiday sent their colt from Florida to run in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday rather than the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park to take advantage of the long stretch here, and Intense Holiday needed every inch of it.

Closing from midpack under Mike Smith, Intense Holiday reeled in the pacesetting Albano stride by stride through the 1,346-foot straightaway, North America’s longest, finally catching him just before the finish to win by a nose.

It was a breakthrough victory for the Todd Pletcher-trained Intense Holiday, who had run well in several major stakes races late last year and in the Jan. 25 Holy Bull Stakes but came into the Risen Star having only won a maiden race. Victory in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star was worth 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, which all but guarantees Intense Holiday a spot in the Derby.

Albano, trained by Larry Jones, ran a game race in defeat, taking a clear early lead when two expected front-runners failed to push the pace. His narrow defeat mirrored the 2012 Risen Star, where the Pletcher-trained El Padrino edged the Jones-trained Mark Valeski, a close relative of Albano.

Albano broke on top from post 1 – “We had to go from there,” Jones said – but Rise Up, the front-running Delta Jackpot winner making his 3-year-old debut, totally missed the break, only ranging up to mildly contest the lead after a quarter-mile had been run in a moderate 24.30 seconds. Also nowhere to be found on the front end was the speedy Lecomte Stakes winner Vicar’s in Trouble, who was eased off the pace after breaking from post 13 and raced from the forward end of midpack.

The tempo through the first half-mile was a steady 48.16 seconds as Albano held a clear lead over Rise Up. Meanwhile, Smith, sitting on Intense Holiday’s back for the first time, was struggling to make things work.

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Intense Holiday, who started his 3-year-old campaign with a decent third in Cairo Prince’s Holy Bull Stakes win and had finished fourth in the Remsen and Nashua stakes last fall, was pulling harder on the bit around the first turn than Smith had expected. Then, as the pair eased onto the backstretch, Smith said his mount took a deep breath and totally relaxed.

“He turned off almost too much!” Smith said. “I was like, ‘No, no, no, don’t lose your position.”

But when Smith niggled at Intense Holiday, he quickly leaped back into action and nearly carried himself into trouble. Stop, start, stop, start – but by the far turn, Intense Holiday was moving up in traffic.

Vicar’s in Trouble, accelerating when asked for run by Rosie Napravnik, made his run at about the five-sixteenths pole, but even as his move on a resolute Albano began withering in midstretch, Intense Holiday was plugging away three paths wide. The gap between him and Albano grew narrower and narrower, and finally, Intense Holiday had scored the slimmest of victories.

“He’s really talented, has a lot of stamina,” Smith said. “He impressed me.”

Intense Holiday was timed in 1:43.86, a good clocking for 1 1/16 miles on a fast track producing times perhaps slightly quicker than par. Untapable had won the Rachel Alexandra Stakes two races earlier in 1:43.64 in a race that was marginally faster than the Risen Star all the way around.

Intense Holiday paid $12 to win. There were 5 1/2 lengths separating Albano and third-place Vicar’s in Trouble, who had 1 1/2 lengths on the late-running Hoppertunity. Gold Hawk was fifth, Commanding Curve sixth, and Rise Up seventh, with a parade of major longshots behind him. Albano earned 20 Derby qualifying points, Vicar’s in Trouble 10, and Hoppertunity five.

Intense Holiday, a son of Harlan’s Holiday and the Unbridled’s Song mare Intensify, is owned by Starlight Racing. Pletcher, reached in Florida, said the colt was likely to return for the Louisiana Derby next month.