Little Vic finds first graded victory in Tom Fool Handicap
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - After running second in his last two stakes starts at Aqueduct, Little Vic broke through with a 1 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Tom Fool Handicap.
Runninsonofagun, making his first start since November, finished second by a neck over favored Nakatomi who was a neck better than Eastern Bay. Pirate Rick was fifth followed by Drafted, Wendell Fong and Chateau.
The win was the fifth from 13 starts but first in a graded race for Little Vic, a 4-year-old son of Practical Joke owned by the Victoria’s Ranch of former major league baseball player Victor Martinez and trained by Juan Carlos Avila. He was ridden to victory by Carlos Olivero, who captured his first graded stakes victory.
Little Vic covered six furlongs over a sealed muddy track in 1:09.73, the fastest six furlongs run here this winter, eclipsing the 1:09.84 run by the New York-bred Today’s Flavor in an allowance on Feb. 18. Little Vic was given a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
Little Vic was aided by a wicked early pace as Chateau outsprinted Pirate Rick for the lead, but had to run fractions of 21.92 seconds for the opening quarter and 45.14 for the opening half to do it.
Little Vic was only a length back after the half-mile, tipped four-wide for the stretch, took the lead at the three-sixteenths pole and held sway to the wire. He returned $14 as the 6-1 fourth choice.
“It’s my first graded win in my career and I’m very happy,” Olivero said through an interpreter. “It was easy because that’s the kind of trip we planned and we expected it. Everything worked out. He is a nice horse, he ran very good and he finished strong.”
In his previous two starts here, Little Vic was beaten a nose by Drafted in the Gravesend and then eight lengths by Repo Rocks in the Grade 3 Toboggan. Martinez noted that in the Gravesend, Little Vic “saw something that scared him, he stopped and went back a little. Olivero, the jockey, said to put blinkers on him.”
In the Toboggan, with blinkers on, Little Vic ran into Repo Rocks, who freaked with a 111 Beyer Speed Figure.
“That horse was on a whole different level,” Martinez said. “Like I always said in baseball you turn the page and come back tomorrow and keep trying.”
Little Vic is based at Parx Racing with Avila. It is possible he could return to New York for the Grade 1 Carter on April 8.
Meanwhile, the connections of Runnsinofagun were pleased with their horse’s effort, his first start since a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight on Nov. 26.
“I think he did everything perfect,” said Kendrick Carmouche, who rode Runninsonofagun. “He got a little tired on me, we expected that. [Little Vic] was sitting in a perfect spot and I thought he was the horse to beat and he beat me.”
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