Field Pass turns tables on Sacred Life in Seabiscuit Handicap
DEL MAR, Calif. – Field Pass avenged a narrow defeat against Sacred Life last month at Belmont Park by beating him by a similar margin, a head, on Saturday at Del Mar in the Grade 2, $251,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, continuing a remarkable stakes-winning statistic for Field Pass.
The win was the eighth in 23 career starts for Field Pass, and his seventh in a stakes, with each win earned at a different track. After defeating maidens at Saratoga at age 2, Field Pass, 4, has subsequently won stakes at Gulfstream Park, Turfway, Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Woodbine, Pimlico, and Del Mar.
He almost added Belmont to that list, but was run down by Sacred Life in the Grade 3 Knickerbocker on Oct. 10. On Saturday, both were making their first starts since then, and this time Field Pass was able to hold off Sacred Life through the stretch run.
Field Pass ($9), the third choice, was fifth of seven during the early going of the 1 1/16-mile grass race before Umberto Rispoli made an aggressive, mid-race move – something he’s done with success before – when the pace slowed. Field Pass hit the front before the top of the lane, with an early move that could have sapped him, but he was determined and would not be denied.
“I don’t want to get him stopped,” Rispoli said. “He can carry his stride forever.”
Nolan Ramsey, the assistant who has overseen the Mike Maker stable here, admitted he was worried at midstretch.
“It seemed like the walls were closing in,” Ramsey said. “But he’s so game. He gives his all every time.”
Field Pass completed 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:41.85, with a final five-sixteenths in 29.59 seconds.
Sacred Life, sixth early, made a bold bid and appeared to be getting to Field Pass a sixteenth out, but he could never get by. He was favored at 4-5.
Indian Peak, 28-1, was three-quarters of a length farther back in third, then came, in order, Majestic Eagle, Flop Shot, Bob and Jackie, and Lambeau, who led for the first half-mile.
Field Pass, a colt by Lemon Drop Kid out of the Runaway Groom mare Only Me, is owned by the Three Diamonds Farm of Kirk Wycoff. He earned $150,000 and now has career earnings of $913,143.