Igniter may want more distance, but he knew how to win Jimmy Winkfield
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The sign of a good racehorse is being successful doing something he may not truly want to do.
On Saturday, at Aqueduct, Igniter was good enough to win the $135,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at six furlongs, a distance that may be shorter than the 3-year-old son of Volatile wants to run.
After breaking alertly under Manny Franco, Igniter sat just off the pacesetting Easy Decision for the first three furlongs. Igniter stuck his head in front at the five-sixteenths pole, put away Easy Decision by the three-sixteenths marker, then spurted away from Time to Roll to win the Jimmy Winkfield by one length. Time To Roll finished a half-length in front of Blue Forty Two, who was third by a nose over Tiger Rocket. Easy Decision finished last in the five-horse field.
The win was the third from five starts for Igniter, owned and bred by Three Chimneys Farm. His wins have come at one mile, seven furlongs, and now six furlongs. Both trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. and Franco believe the horse prefers a little more ground.
“Maybe this might not be his game, six furlongs, don’t know yet, but I’m happy to run seven-eighths next time and we got this job done today the right way,” said Dutrow, who is pointing Igniter to the $150,000 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs on April 18. “He dug in, he showed he’s a racehorse, he doesn’t want anybody beating him, he’s got that quality.”
Franco gave Igniter a good warmup on the track prior to the start of the race. Igniter broke on top before Franco was content to sit an up-close second, stalking the pace through a quarter in 22.78 seconds and coming to the quarter pole narrowly in front after a half-mile in 46.28. Franco said Igniter felt Time to Roll coming on his outside and had more to give.
“I warmed him up good, I wanted to be close because I know he prefers more distance,” Franco said. “I break running, I wanted to be forward and then I was happy where I was. I sat a little bit there, when he felt the horse coming he let me know, so I just went with him.”
Franco noted that Dutrow equipped Igniter with a shadow roll for the Winkfield for the first time.
“I think that helped him a lot because before he liked to see everything,” Franco said. “I think he’s more focused. I think he’s really well since he’s been running.”
Igniter covered the six furlongs in 1:10.36 and returned $3.34 as the odds-on favorite.
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