Lennox the Grey noses out The Big Con to win Old Dominion Derby
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Lennox the Grey took full advantage of a murky pace scenario in the Grade 3 Old Dominion Derby, taking the early lead and battling back late for a photo-finish victory on Monday at Colonial Downs. The colt could not have had it any better in his stakes debut for trainer Arnaud Delacour.
Of the four 3-year-olds who scratched from the Old Dominion Derby’s field of 14, Fuzzbuster, Gramp’s Legacy, and Siyouincanada all figured as potential pace presences. These defections were at least partially responsible for Lennox the Grey being bet down from 15-1 to 9-2. He paid $11.40 to win.
“There was a little bit of speed that scratched this morning. I knew that it was going to end up like that,” Delacour said. “I didn't see anyone else that would show enough speed to make the lead.”
The Delacour trainee was entering stakes company for the first time off a late-flying conditioned allowance victory, but he had previously done solid running closer to the pace. Without a clear front-runner in the graded stakes field, jockey Mychel Sanchez decided to take his chance and was handsomely rewarded.
“The last time was a bit different,” Delacour said of the allowance victory last month. “We had a lot of pace to run behind, so he just sat there and he learned. The first time we ran him coming back [in July], he was a little bit aggressive off the layoff, just a little too aggressive. He paid for it at the end, but obviously that was a good stepping-stone for the next one and for this race.”
Chambersville, another last-out allowance winner trained by Kenny McPeek, applied nominal early pressure, but Sanchez easily took the early lead and got away with soft fractions in the 1 1/8-mile turf race. Lennox the Grey completed the opening quarter-mile in 24.57 seconds and was similarly unbothered through a half-mile in 50.80.
The two shortest prices in the Old Dominion Derby, The Big Con and Supercharger, had the unenviable task of closing from outside posts. Supercharger, the last-out winner of the Grade 2 Secretariat, never contended for the win and finished fourth, but The Big Con arguably made the most of things with an inspired ride from Jorge Ruiz. The lightly raced colt was keen early and courageously slipped between horses on the backstretch, advancing from sixth into an early striking position.
Before the race, trainer Miguel Clement said he was highly optimistic about The Big Con’s chances coming off a game fifth in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby. But he also said his colt needed a pace out in front and strongly disliked the idea that many of the pacesetters might defect.
Ruiz did his best, however, and after boldly moving between horses to get into contention, he and The Big Con tucked in on the rail to attack Lennox the Grey on his inside turning for home. With a massive kick in midstretch, the Clement trainee managed to sneak past Lennox the Grey and Chambersville at once and seemed to be on his way to an unlikely closing victory.
But just as The Big Con wrested the lead away, Sanchez asked Lennox the Grey for more, and the punchy colt immediately responded and began to battle back. Ruiz needed one last lunge to seal the deal, but he could not hold off the resurgent pacesetter at the end. Lennox the Grey prevailed by a nose, completing the 1 1/8-mile distance in 1:49.77.
“I want to give credit to the horse because [The Big Con] took like a a neck on him and he came back,” Delacour said. “It was a very game performance.”
Chambersville chased all the way under Emmanuel Esquivel and easily held on for third, a half-length behind the Big Con.
Delacour said he did not have a spot picked for Lennox the Grey next time out, but he did not rule out a trip to Belmont Park or Keeneland in the fall.
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