Jack and Noah runs away with Sir Cat Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – In talking about Jack and Noah for the Sir Cat Stakes earlier this week, trainer Mark Casse said the 3-year-old colt wants to “go as fast as he can for as long as he can.”

On Friday, Jack and Noah went extremely fast for as long as he needed to win the $80,000 Sir Cat Stakes by one length at Belmont Park. After setting fractions of 21.57 seconds for the quarter and 43.84 for the half-mile, Jack and Noah covered six furlongs in 1:07.05 over a firm inner turf course. That was just .31 of a second off the course record owned by Tombelaine.

Turned Aside chased Jack and Noah all the way around the course but had to settle for second, one length ahead of longshot Old Chestnut, also trained by Casse. Maxwell Esquire was fourth, followed by Guildsman, Chimney Rock – the 2-1 favorite – and So Street.

The win was the third from six starts for Jack and Noah, a 3-year-old son of Bated Breath owned by Gary Barber who named the horse for his twin grandsons.

John Velazquez rode Jack and Noah. He said Casse told him the horse has a light mouth and to just let him be “wherever he wants to be.”
Velazquez said he knew was going fast, but he didn’t want to get in the horse’s way.

“I’m talking him to him the whole way, ‘Whoa, whoa,’ try to settle the best I can without [getting] into his mouth,” Velazquez said. “I can’t take too much of a hold, he’d be throwing his head up and then Mark would be really mad at me.”

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Jamie Begg, Casse’s assistant, said he didn’t mind seeing the fast fractions because the horse wasn’t pressed and perhaps the other horses were taken out of their game.

“He had it his own way, and when he’s going 43 and they’re going 45 maybe they don’t like doing that,” Begg said. “Sometimes you can run them off their feet.”

This was the second time Turned Aside finished second to Jack and Noah. The two ran 1-2 in a six-furlong maiden race here last September. Turned Aside was making his first start since last November.

“How fast do you have to run, that’s crazy,” said Linda Rice, the trainer of the runner-up. “I was pleased. We had planned to try and point him at a target. Jose [Ortiz] said he broke so sharp he could’ve went to the lead, but they went the 21 and change, 43 and change. I think we were in the right spot, we just got beat.