Last turning for home, Win Win Win passes them all to win Forego Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - With heavy rain falling and a tornado warning having been issued for the local area in the minutes leading up to post time, the scene was set for something out of the ordinary to happen late Saturday afternoon at Saratoga in the $300,000 Forego. And sure enough, it did.
Win Win Win rallied over the sloppy track from nearly 20 lengths behind the leaders in the run down the backstretch of the seven-furlong race to an improbable but very memorable half-length victory over Complexity in the Grade 1 fixture for older horses.
Win Win Win, whose last main-track start going seven furlongs resulted in an easy victory and track record 19 months earlier in the Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, appeared to take up briefly after the break under jockey Javier Castellano, then quickly lost contact with the other 10 members of the Forego lineup. He remained out of the television picture leaving the backstretch and was still last as the field turned into the stretch. Win Win Win angled very wide while commencing his bid nearing the quarter pole, continued full of run down the center of the course, and wored down Complexity to be along in the closing strides.
The effort avenged Win Win Win’s second to Complexity, beaten 2 1/4 lengths, going a mile under high-priced allowance and optional-claiming conditions eight weeks earlier at Belmont Park.
Complexity survived an early pace duel with True Timber to edge clear at midstretch on Saturday before succumbing in the shadow of the wire. True Timber gave way grudgingly himself, finishing another three-quarters of a length farther back in third. Funny Guy, who was bet late to go postward the 3-1 favorite, finished fourth after being forced to steady along the inside near the three-eighths pole.
Win Win Win, a Live Oak homebred who finished 10th over a sloppy track in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, is trained by Michael Trombetta. He completed the distance in 1:21.71 and paid $16.20 for his first victory since winning the Manila Stakes on grass at Belmont Park in July of 2019, following which he went on an 11-month sabbatical.
“At the quarter pole, I thought it was absolutely hopeless, to be honest,” said Trombetta. “When I looked across the infield I could see nothing. He was completely off the screen and his chicklet was completely off the screen, and I didn’t know what was going on. When they made the bend, he reappeared, and all of a sudden, once I figured out who was who, it was nice to see him running so hard through the stretch.”
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Trombetta said the whole scene, the heavy rain and wet track, reminded him of Derby Day in 2019 at Churchill Downs.
“I thought we were back at the Derby, as hard as it rained that day, too,” said Trombetta. “But I think he can handle just about any surface. Obviously seven furlongs is a distance he likes, although he doesn’t have the best gate speed and I was worried the way this track’s been playing because it’s been very hard to close. What he did, I haven’t seen the whole meet. A one-turn seven furlongs was something I wanted to revisit with him at some time, and after his last race it looked like he was rounding into form. We all like the third race off the layoff situation, and this is a race we’ve targeted for a long time and we’ve all been working hard all summer to get there.”