Imagining proves uncatchable in Man o' War

ELMONT, N.Y. - Despite watching Imagining race on the lead through an opening quarter of a mile in 23.94 seconds in Sunday’s 1 3/8-mile Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park, trainer Shug McGaughey thought to himself, “if he’s fit enough, he’s going to win.”

Making his first start since February and only his second since last fall, Imagining indeed was fit enough to take this field all the way on the lead and win the Grade 1, $400,000 Man o’ War by three-quarters of a length over Real Solution. It was a half-length back to European-import Grandeur in third. He was followed, in order, by Frac Daddy, Vertiformer, and Amira’s Prince, the 8-5 favorite. Lucayan scratched.

It was the third straight victory in this race for trainer Shug McGaughey and the Phipps Stable. They won it in 2012 with Point of Entry and last year with Boisterous.

“I never won it before and now I won it three years in a row with three different horses,” McGaughey said. “I’m pleased. I’m really pleased for Imagining. He’s been second in two Grade 1’s; He deserved to win a Grade 1. Now he’s done it.”

He did it in much different fashion then perhaps handicappers would have suspected. Breaking alertly out of the gate, Imagining was on the lead every step of the way, running fractions of 23.94 seconds for the quarter, 49.13 for the half-mile, 1:13.75 for six furlongs, 1:38.01 for a mile, 2:02.00 for 1 1/4 miles and completing the 1 3/8 miles in 2:14.33 over an inner turf course labeled good. Imagining is now 5 for 5 over the inner turf and 8 for 16 in his career.

“He was sharp in the paddock, been training sharp. If he broke good, he’d probably be right up there,” McGaughey said. “I thought they were clicking along pretty good for what supposedly is a soft or good turf course. He was able to hold off a couple of pretty nice horses running at him. Joel did a good job of race-riding in the stretch to let him know what was coming.”

Rosario maneuvered Imagining to the inside to let him sense Grandeur and to the outside to let him see Real Solution, who was making the last run at Imaging.

"Shug told me there wasn't probably going to be a lot of speed in the race and he was coming off a couple of months off, so he'd probably show some speed and he did,” said Rosario, who also won the License Fee Stakes on Free as a Bird. “He's a game horse. Every time a horse came to him, [he fought].”

It has been two years since Real Solution has finished first in a race, the last time coming in Italy. He was elevated to first by the stewards in last summer’s Arlington Million. On Sunday, his connections - jockey Javier Castellano and trainer Chad Brown – said they felt he was in inhibited by following Amira’s Prince, who backed up down the backside.

“It put him in a bad spot, [Castellano] felt he had to use him too much even to get to [Imagining’s] throatlatch in the stretch,” Brown said. “It may have taken a little bit out of him. He was high-weight too.”

A rematch between Imagining and Real Solution is likely to occur in the $1 million Manhattan here on June 7.

The biggest disappointment of the race was Amira’s Prince, who in six previous starts in the United States had never finished worse than third.

“He was having a good trip, he just didn’t run,” said Bill Mott, trainer of Amira’s Prince. “See if something shows up back at the barn. As far as the trip went I couldn’t blame that.”