First Constitution hits triple-digit Beyer in Jazil
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Already flush with talent in the older male route division, WinStar Farm and trainer Todd Pletcher added to their cupboard Saturday with First Constitution, a dominant 6 3/4-length winner of Saturday’s $100,000 Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct.
First Constitution led every step of the way in the Jazil, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.96, and earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance which was done over an inside-favoring, fast-playing track. The win was First Constitution’s first in five starts in the United States.
A Group 1 winner in his native Chile, First Constitution was last in his U.S. debut at Saratoga in September. He then ran second or third in a triple of second-level allowance races, earning high 90-plus speed figures in all three.
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“His first race is a complete throwout,” said Elliott Walden, president of WinStar Farm, which owns First Constitution in partnership with Don Alberto Racing and Twin Creeks Racing. “He came to the paddock like a yearling screaming for his mother. He got really washy. If you throw that race out, every race has built upon itself. He’s at a level now, running a 100 Beyer, where he’s going to be a nice handicap horse this year.”
WinStar and Pletcher already have several horses in that division, most notably Life Is Good, who is running in Saturday’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, and Americanrevolution, winner of the Grade 1 Cigar Mile. Walden said Americanrevolution is still at WinStar enjoying a freshening and is pointing to a late spring/early summer start with the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 11 a potential first major target.
Regarding First Constitution, Walden said he is likely to stay in New York and would be considered for the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior on April 2.
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“One other thing Todd and I discussed this morning, which I never thought about, was with him being Southern Hemisphere, it’s good for him to spend a period of time in the cold weather and almost get his whole body on a Northern Hemisphere schedule,” Walden said. “We’re inclined to leave him there with the Excelsior probably the next target.”