I Got It All alters tactics

STICKNEY, Ill. -- There’s no better place for a front-runner in a speed-filled field than an outside post position, and I Got It All, rating comfortably behind the lead for the first time in his career, took full advantage of just such a situation winning the $81,900 Land of Lincoln Stakes on Saturday at Hawthorne.

I Got It All led when he won a maiden race by almost 16 lengths in his second start here last fall, and he led when he finished second in an open first-level allowance race on April 6, his 3-year-old debut. But as Rivzinthehouse and Rambling Richie dueled for the early lead, I Got It All and jockey Manny Cosme sat cozily in third, outside and in the clear.

“We could have been up there with them, but I didn’t want to do that, and we took full advantage of our post,” said winning trainer Tom Swearingen.

The pace was quick, wilting the leaders as I Got It All pounced at the top of the stretch. He took the lead with little trouble and fairly easily outfinished Easy Solution, the favorite. Easy Solution, trapped on a rail that Swearingen, at least, felt was somewhat dead, was taken back off the early gallop by jockey Manny Esquivel. Stuck inside most of the trip, he came out in the stretch to make a bid for the lead but couldn’t reach I Got It All while four lengths clear of third-place Solar Flair. I Got It All won by two lengths, paying $9.20 while running six furlongs in 1:11.36.

A son of Tiz Wonderful, I Got It All was unnerved by the sharp stumble a horse next to him took just after the start, Swearingen said, and faded off the pace and finished a distant seventh in his debut last summer at Arlington, but since then has run three good races. Swearingen said he thinks the colt will stretch out to two turns, and said he would point I Got It All to the one-turn-mile Springfield Stakes for Illinois-bred 3-year-olds early this summer at Arlington.