Golden Award wins eventful running of Turnback the Alarm Stakes

Golden Award is bred to be a runner as daughter of Medaglia d’Oro and a half-sister to 2012 Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another, and her pedigree performed Saturday, with the 4-year-old picking up the second stakes win of her career in the Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct.

The mile and an eighth race for fillies and mares lost two of its starters out of the gate when Crimson Frost unseated jockey Harry Hernandez and Bellera unseated Jose Lezcano. The horses and riders avoided serious injuries. Lezcano came back and rode the next race, while Hernandez went to a local hospital to have one of his arms evaluated, according to the New York Racing Association press office.

Golden Award ($4.60) was a three-quarter-length winner over Another Broad. It was another nine lengths back in third to Moonlit Garden, who won a photo for third over fourth-place finisher Gotham Gala.

Golden Award stalked the pace set by Jeltrin, who took the field through fractions of 24.69 seconds for the opening quarter and 48.49 for the half-mile while the riderless Bellera raced up in front of the pack. Junior Alvarado guided Golden Award to the lead through six furlongs in 1:12.44, with the pair maneuvering past the rail-running loose horse with caution. Golden Award went on to cover the distance on a fast track in 1:49.46.

The win was the third on the card for Alvarado, who was aboard for trainer Bill Mott.

“She broke great,” Alvarado told Aqueduct publicity. “I talked to Bill earlier and we kind of saw the race as [Jeltrin] would go and maybe somebody on the outside. That's exactly what happened, so we ended up in a great position.

“We couldn't have asked for a better spot than what we were in the whole way around. She was just much the best today. I had to make a quick move by the three-eighths pole. I knew I had enough horse to get to the wire from that point, but I didn't want to wait and have the loose horse in front push me outside. So, I made an early move just to make sure so I could cut the corner there, but she was much the best. I was just a pilot today.”

Golden Award races for Summer Wind Equine. She won the first stakes race of her career in July in the Grade 3 Shuvee at Saratoga. With the win in the Turnback the Alarm, she improved her career record to 5 for 11 for earnings of $377,100.