Morello rolls to solid triumph in Jimmy Winkfield
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Morello took advantage of his outside draw and a solid pace in front of him to roll to a five-length victory in Sunday’s $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
Life Is Great, who prompted stablemate Hagler on the lead, finished second, 4 1/2 lengths clear of Beast Or Famine. Dance Code was fourth followed by Hagler.
The win was the second in as many starts for Morello, a son of Classic Empire who sold for $250,000 as a 2-year-old at the Timonium sale. Morello is owned by Blue Lion Thoroughbreds, Craig Taylor, and Victoria Taylor (unrelated).
It was the first stakes victory for Blue Lion, whose managing partner Dave Lyon noted that his outfit had more to spend at auction with the addition of new clients like the Taylors.
“We’ve got a few new partners this year so we were able to step up our game a little bit on that,” Lyon said. “We were ready to go a little bit deeper on this horse, he was our favorite horse in that sale. We’d like to buy something from $50,000 to $100,000 but we want to win at Saratoga. Our group is mostly from Saratoga and you got to pay $150,000 to $200,000 to compete at this level. We think it’s a bargain at this point.”
Lyon said the name Morello honors his favorite guitarist, Tom Morello, best known for his work with the group Rage Against the Machine.
Following his maiden victory on Nov. 27, Morello was being pointed to a one-mile allowance race on Jan. 14 that didn’t fill. The Winkfield was initially scheduled for Jan. 30, but that card was canceled due to weather.
The cancellation prompted the field to go from eight horses when originally drawn to five as three original Winkfield entrants ran in the Spectacular Bid on Jan. 29 at Laurel.
Morello drew the outside post in Sunday’s five-horse field. He was kept within two lengths of the lead by Jose Lezcano after an opening quarter run by Hagler in 22.60 seconds. Life Is Great, who, like Hagler, is owned by Esteban Vargas, took the lead from Hagler midway around the far turn, but Lezcano had Morello on the move. Morello took over from Life Is Great at the three-sixteenths pole and widened his advantage through the lane without being hit by the whip.
“Last time, he broke a little slow, but today it was good,” Lezcano said. “He was in the bridle the whole way and was really going like a good horse. I didn’t have to touch him with the whip or anything. I just let him go. He had the same kick as last time.”
Morello covered the seven furlongs over a track labeled good in 1:23.30 and returned $4.80 as the favorite.
“He had a great post and he’s improved obviously from the way he broke from his last race,” said Toby Sheets, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “He’s a nice colt.”
Lyon said he would let Asmussen and Sheets decide on the next spot for Morello but mentioned the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham on March 5 as a race he would like to run in.
“I think it’s a realistic spot for him, I don’t think he needs too much time,” Lyon said. “The race is on March 5, so we’ll talk to the guys who lead the charge in the training barn and make a decision on that. We’re excited. We think we got a real good, stakes quality, open company horse.”