Hard Love pulls away from It's a Gamble in Woodhaven

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - His respect for what it takes to win a stakes race in New York being considerable, trainer Jonathan Thomas didn’t think he had Hard Love ready to take Saturday’s $100,000 Woodhaven Stakes at Aqueduct off a 140-day layoff.

Fortunately, for those who hammered Hard Love down to 2-5 favoritism, Thomas was wrong.

After stalking and then sparring with pacesetting Original through about a mile of the Woodhaven, Hard Love edged away in the last sixteenth and was able to hold It’s a Gamble at bay to win the Woodhaven by 1 1/4 lengths. It’s a Gamble was second by 2 1/2 lengths over Original.

Extrasexybigdaddee was fourth, followed by Minuteman, Shawdyshawdyshawdy, and Sifting Sands.

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The win was the second from three starts for Hard Love, a son of Kitten’s Joy owned by Robert Lapenta and George Strawbridge’s August Stable. He was making his first start since he finished second in the Central Park Stakes last Nov. 28.

Hard Love got a vacation in Ocala, and though he returned to Thomas in good shape, the trainer wasn’t sure he had done enough with the colt to win off the bench.

“Typically for stakes racing in New York off a break, I like to have a methodic kind of foundation under one and we weren’t able to do that for various reasons,” Thomas said. “He’s supposed to improve fitness-wise.”

Thomas credited Javier Castellano’s heady ride for the victory. Trapped inside of Original entering the first turn, Castellano let Jose Ortiz on Original go and tipped Hard Love to the outside. It was a lot more comfortable stalking from the outside and Castellano said he had horse to work with for the remainder of the trip.

“We have soft ground and sometimes horses get tired in the end coming off a layoff,” Castellano said. [Thomas] did a really good job.”

Hard Love covered the 1 1/16 miles over turf labeled firm in 1:44.34 and returned $2.80 as the favorite.

Hard Love will now point to the Grade 2, $200,000 Pennine Ridge going 1 1/8 miles at Belmont on May 29.