Hello Don Julio shows stamina in winning Laurel Turf Cup

Channing Hill might have been more tired than Hello Don Julio, the horse he rode, after the $100,000 Laurel Turf Cup.

Hill, aboard Hello Don Julio for the first time, marveled at his mount’s stamina after Hello Don Julio put away pesky pace rival Final Copy in upper stretch, then stayed on steadily to win the 1 1/2-mile Turf Cup by three-quarters of a length over 115-1 shot Cooptado.

“Did you see him gallop out?” said Hill, who noted Hello Don Julio turned around and came back to the front side of the track to get his picture taken still ready to keep running. “He galloped out like he’d [worked] five-eighths in 1:01.”

Owned and trained by Mike Dilger, Hello Don Julio’s first stakes win had been a long time in the making. Dilger, obviously impressed with his charge, had thrown him into the Grade 2 Pan American Stakes during the winter of 2016, when Hello Don Julio was making just his second start.

Hello Don Julio this year had run creditable races in the Grade 1 Manhattan and the Grade 2 Knickerbocker, and on Saturday, he had too much class for his opponents in the listed Turf Cup. Final Copy was sent hard to try to make the early lead before Hill got in front of him and was able to slow the pace to a 25.48-second first quarter-mile.

But Final Copy and jockey Gary Stevens were intent on staying up on the pace, coming outside Hello Don Julio to narrowly lead through a half-mile in 51.14 and three-quarters in 1:16.45. Even caught inside and just behind his pace rival, Hello Don Julio never became anxious, and when Hill let him out a notch at the quarter pole, Hello Don Julio opened up a considerable lead that he would not relinquish.

The winning time over a course officially rated “good” was 2:34.63, and Hello Don Julio paid $5 to win as the favorite. He received a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

The millionaire 8-year-old Cooptado reversed some poor turf form from the spring in a bounce-back performance and had 3 3/4 lengths on third-place Postulation at the finish.

Hello Don Julio, a 6-year-old gelding, is by Alfeet Alex and out of Faithful, by Vindication. On Saturday, he bid goodbye to the absence on his résumé of a deserved stakes win.

Fire Key by a nose in Sensible Lady

The finish came too late for Fire Key in the 2017 Sensible Lady Turf Dash. On Saturday at Laurel, it came just in time.

A year ago, Fire Key made an upper-stretch move to reach contention and was nip and tuck for the lead at the furlong pole before her momentum wavered and she settled for second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths. Fire Key and Julian Pimentel made the same sweeping turn move in Saturday’s race but this year had just enough to hold off Compelled, winning a tight photo over the onrushing 5-2 second choice to score by a nose.

“We came down and just missed in this race last year, and we tried to get her back here again,” said winning trainer Pat Kelly, a Maryland native. “She doesn’t win by much, but she’s gutsy.”

The splits in the six-furlong Sensible Lady were glacial (23.87, 49.44) but the front-runners still played no final part. Fire Key, coming wide from ninth with a long, sustained move around the turn and into the stretch, looked at the furlong grounds like she might win comfortably before Compelled, who still was last with a quarter-mile to run, rallied furiously.

Fear No Evil, finishing closest to the rail, also was part of the win photo, finishing another head back in third. Even-money favorite Smiling Causeway dueled for the lead before fading to eighth.

Fire Key was timed in 1:14.96 over a course called “good” but playing radically slow. Fire Key was given a 90 Beyer Speed Figure. She paid $25.20 in winning for the sixth time in 22 starts. Kelly trains the New York-bred 5-year-old, a daughter of Friesan Fire and the Albert the Great mare U.R. Key, for owner and breeder Backwards Stable.