Goliad leads all the way in Tight Spot Handicap

A day after riding Idea Generation to a wire-to-wire victory for future Hall of Famer Chad Brown in the Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga, Florent Geroux rode Goliad to a wire-to-wire victory for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella in the $500,000 Tight Spot Handicap on Sunday at Kentucky Downs.

Goliad stumbled slightly breaking from post 1, but quickly got into a rhythm and onto a lead he wouldn’t relinquish in this one-mile contest. Among four scratches from the main body of the Tight Spot was Funtastic Again, a serious speed player who would have kept Goliad from an easy lead.

Instead, Goliad rated kindly for Geroux through splits of 23.33 and 45.53 on a firm, fast-playing Kentucky Downs course. Racing for the first time since May 27, when he all but ran off with his jockey in the Shoemaker Mile, Goliad relaxed and waited for his rider’s cue, and even as his mount bent into the long homestretch, Geroux barely had begun moving his hands.

Goliad cornered athletically, increased his lead as he straightened up, got a pop of the crop from Geroux with about three-sixteenths of a mile left, then had to dig deep while tiring in the late stages, Noises Off closing to within three-quarters of a length at the finish.

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Cash Equity also finished with interest for third, just ahead of 5-2 favorite Dataman, who rallied mildly and belatedly. Smokin’ T, the 3-1 second choice, tracked the pace and had no late punch. Goliad, the starting co-highweight at 123 pounds with sixth-place Atone, paid $10.46 to win and was timed in 1:33.12.

Goliad races for Ramona Bass, his breeder, and Perry Bass, and at age 7, this was only the gelding’s 19th start. By War Front out of Choreograph, by Dynaformer, Goliad debuted in September 2019 and had a 16-month layoff before returning to action in June 2021. After two starts, he missed another 11 months of racing and had another eight-month gap between starts into June 2023. Through it all, Mandella has kept the horse pointed in the right direction, and on Sunday, a day after his big win in New York, Geroux pointed Goliad to the lead and on to victory.

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