Hedge Ratio gets up at wire to edge Star Sweeper in Long Branch Stakes
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Hedge Ratio might have been a predictable winner in the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park, but what seemed to be a cinch for most of the race turned into an arduous task in the final furlong. In a late and unexpected duel with 11-1 longshot Star Sweeper, the Chad Brown trainee needed every inch of the stretch to get the bob in a tight photo finish.
The Long Branch was originally scheduled to run on the Opening Day card at Monmouth on Saturday, but the race did not fill. A group of six 3-year-olds was assembled and the race was brought back, but Clocker Special and Red Zone Runner scratched, leaving a field of four in the gate Sunday.
Hedge Ratio was one of two making their stakes debuts, along with the maiden Noble Heritage, but his connection to Brown was not the only thing driving his odds down to 3-5. On March 29, the Speightstown colt exploded to earn a grinding victory in a first-level allowance at Aqueduct. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure for that effort and seemed like a natural pick to handle stakes company under Samuel Marin at Monmouth.
Shipping to New Jersey also helped him earn more respect among bettors, though his dominant victory last time out might have helped him regardless. He paid $3.20 to win.
Star Sweeper did not enter the Long Branch with a triple-digit Beyer, nor anything that could have possibly stacked up to that performance on paper. In his last three starts, all stakes for trainer Lou Linder Jr., he lost by a combined 43 1/2 lengths. But in Eric Cancel’s first ride aboard the colt, the jockey broke from the rail and seemed to have a clear idea, even after stumbling out of the starting gate.
Bricklin, the fourth-place finisher in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby last time out, was expected to be the pacesetter in the Long Branch, but when Star Sweeper hustled forward to his inside, jockey Paco Lopez had to abandon those plans. The even-money second choice traveled wide into the first turn and had little to offer after chasing in second on the backstretch.
After effectively neutralizing a key contender in the opening strides, Cancel and Star Sweeper completed the opening quarter-mile in 23.34 seconds and cruised along on the backstretch through a half-mile in 47.15.
The race was all theirs for a time, but there was never any doubt that Hedge Ratio would advance from his stalking position in fourth. The result was all but inevitable when Marin nudged the favorite forward to draw alongside the leader and take a short lead on the far turn.
A length in front at the top of the stretch, the Brown-trained colt was in the process of edging away when Star Sweeper suddenly battled back under Cancel. The procession turned into another duel, and with renewed intensity, Star Sweeper seemed to have the upper hand as he cut into Hedge Ratio’s advantage.
If the stretch run was 50 feet shorter, Star Sweeper might have pulled off the impossible comeback with a whisker in front, but Marin found just enough in the end. In his 14th career stakes victory at Monmouth, the jockey urged Hedge Ratio on for one last rally, winning by a desperate head. He completed the mile and 70 yards in 1:42.40.
In a true mark of his improvement in defeat, Star Sweeper finished 7 1/2 lengths ahead of Noble Heritage, who never contended but picked off Bricklin to take third for trainer Jorge Delgado. It was a smashing effort for the Linder-trained colt, one in which Cancel spurred him to the early lead for the second time in his career.
Hedge Ratio gave Brown his first victory in the Long Branch, one of the few stakes the trainer had not won at Monmouth. The race has long served as an early prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell in July, and though it didn’t draw a large field, it might yet produce a few hopefuls for the track’s biggest race.
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