The King Cheek battles back to win Sir Barton Stakes

BALTIMORE – At first glance, Jamie Ness wasn't sure he even wanted The King Cheek.

"We dropped a claim on this horse," Ness said in the winner's circle after Saturday's $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes for 3-year-olds. "It was a five-way shake. And he ran terrible. I told my owner to go lose the shake. He ran bad. And he comes out with the slip and here we are. So you just never know. I've claimed lots of horses and you just never know."

Ness didn't expect to run The King Cheek – taken for $20,000 out of that maiden claimer last fall at Delaware – in the Sir Barton until the Pimlico racing office came calling.

"Absolutely not," Ness said. "He just ran 10 days ago. They called me and asked if I had any 3-year-olds doing good. I asked them for what and they said the Sir Barton. I said he was doing great. Put him in. Take a shot."

The King Cheek broke running from the inside post under Jaime Rodriguez and set fractions of 24.06 seconds and 47.67.

Heavily favored Hozier, trained by Bob Baffert, found room along the inside and shot on through from his pocket position to place his nose in front on the second turn. The decision by Rodriguez to move The King Cheek off the inside concerned Ness.

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"I was a little bit worried about that," Ness said. "I didn't understand what he was doing, but the horse has a tendency to drift a little bit. The jock said he was just getting out enough on the turn where that other rider took a shot inside. He thinks it was a good thing because it gave him a little something to run at instead of being out there looking by himself."

Hozier tried hard, but The King Cheek also battled and put his head down in front after 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.81 over a fast main track. The New York-bred gelded son of Laoban returned $10.40.

"He looked like he was going to engage with that other horse the whole way, so I thought it was going to be a close race down to the wire." Ness said. "Luckily, we got our head in front."

Ness has no specific plans for The King Cheek, who is not Triple Crown nominated. The Belmont Stakes isn't in the cards.

"I ran him back-to-back in 10 days, so a little rest down the road. It's a long year. There are some really nice New York-sired races up there, so I'll probably wait for those and go from there.

Hozier was saddled by Baffert's assistant trainer, Jimmy Barnes.

"He ran a very good race," Barnes told track publicity. "Joel [Rosario] thought he made the right move, getting down to the inside. Give a lot of credit to the horse that won. He fought back on and passed us."

It was another 9 1/2 lengths back to Romp in third. Golden Gulley finished fourth.

Market Cap unseated jockey Johan Rosado leaving the gate. Both horse and rider appeared to escape serious injury. Rosado walked off the track.

"He grabbed a quarter with his left front when he stumbled out of there," said Jeremiah O'Dwyer, Market Cap's trainer.