Integration announces presence with Hill Prince victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. — With a devastating turn of foot in the stretch, Integration not only remained unbeaten but announced himself as a potential future star in the male turf division with a five-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Hill Prince Stakes at Aqueduct.

Sitting third, eight lengths behind a faster-than-anticipated pace, Integration joined the leaders turning for home then buried the field in the stretch. Despite drifting out several paths under Kendrick Carmouche’s left-handed stick, Integration ran a final eighth in 10.85 seconds en route to unofficially equaling a 38-year-old Aqueduct turf course record.

Integration’s final time was 1:47.06 for 1 1/8 miles over the inner turf. The recorded inner turf course record - there was only one turf course back then - was 1:47 set by Slew the Dragon in the 1985 Lashkari Stakes. In 1985, times of races were recorded in fifths, not hundredths as has been the case since the early 1990s.

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Nobody really needed the clock to determine that Integration is a serious horse. The victory in the Hill Prince improved his record to 3 for 3 with two victories at Colonial Downs during the summer including the Grade 3 Virginia Derby in September.

“I don’t think in 23 years I’ve been riding I’ve ever been on a horse this good,” said Carmouche, who has won more than 3,700 races.

Though Integration beat the Grade 1 winner Program Trading in the Virginia Derby, trainer Shug McGaughey felt the Hill Prince was going to be a bigger test for the son of Quality Road who cost $700,000 at the Saratoga yearling sale in 2021. He is owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing.

“I think this was his best race,” McGaughey said. “The race at Colonial was really a good race and it was a good field - the horse that was second was a Grade 1 winner - but to come back and do it here, I really think this was a good race.”

Integration broke sharp but Carmouche placed him third along the inside coming through the stretch the first time. Meanwhile, Laurel Valley, under Dylan Davis, was motoring up front, going a quarter in 23.00 seconds and a half-mile in 47.43 while being chased by Equitize. Early on down the backside, Integration was eight lengths back.

Integration inched close to the front pair as they approached the half-mile pole. Carmouche switched him three wide around the far turn and came into the stretch with a ton of horse. In th stretch, Carmouche said he purposely kept the horse to the outside, but Integration did drift out a few paths under two taps of Carmouche’s whip.

“As soon as I got to the half-mile, I smooched a little bit to him and he caught up with them so I slowed him right back down,” Carmouche said. “But once he switched leads, wow, you could just feel him accelerate. He took off in Colonial but this was beautiful.”

Integration returned $3.60 as the odds-on choice.

I’m Very Busy, who was racing alongside Integration down the backside, finished second, one length ahead of Toofareastiswest. Freedom Trail finished fourth and was followed by Faraday, Laurel Valley, Equitize, Classic Catch, and Quality Chic.

Toofareastiswest was pulled up on the gallop-out by Joel Rosario and was vanned off. Rosario said the horse appeared to be lame in his left front.

Meanwhile, Integration will soon be sent to Florida for the winter. The $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park is possible, though McGaughey said he won’t be in a hurry to run the horse back.

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