Fandom ends layoff with narrow win in Palisades Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It had been a long time between starts for Fandom, but it did not take him long to get back in the win column – 1:02.83, to be precise. That was the time Fandom clocked winning the $250,000 Palisades Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland in his first start since an 11th-place finish in the Coventry Stakes last June at Royal Ascot.

Stalking the pace under Jose Ortiz, Fandom ($17.50) was up by a neck over another horse who last had raced overseas, the Ireland-bred colt Mansa Musa. Refuel ran a game race to finish third, while favored No Nay Mets, fourth, was done in by contesting a sizzling pace in the Palisades, a 5 1/2-furlong grass race for 3-year-olds.

Fandom, bred in England, began his career last April 27 with a sharp front-running victory in a Keeneland turf sprint. Things did not go his way at Ascot, and when trainer Wesley Ward was preparing Fandom for a start at Saratoga last summer, the colt developed a serious lung infection. Fandom was given plenty of recovery time and Ward only got the horse back in mid-March from Florida, where Fandom was legged up and began breezing under Ian Brennan at the farm of his owner, Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables.

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Fandom was ready. A front-running winner in his debut, Fandom broke alertly under Jose Ortiz but settled off a demanding first quarter-mile in 21.59. Fandom pounced on the leaders in the final furlong and picked off Mansa Musa just before the finish.

“It was good to see him come from off the pace today,” Ward said.

Mansa Musa ran well in his North American debut for trainer Bill Mott. Purchased after his first start, Mansa Musa placed in two Group stakes races in Ireland last fall campaigning for Team Valor International and Gary Barber. Right on the pace racing in Ireland, Mansa Musa hesitated at the start and was second-last just after the break, though jockey Junior Alvarado engineered a favorable trip thereafter. Mansa Musa came willingly up the inside and looked like a winner after collaring No Nay Mets, but Fandom had the last word.

Fandom is by Showcasing out of Brogan, by Pivotal, and Ward said the William Walker Stakes next month at Churchill Downs would be considered, as will a listed race at the Royal Ascot meeting.

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