Nagirroc sets track record with speedy Murphy Stakes triumph
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BALTIMORE – When the best horse gets the best trip, it’s usually curtains for the rest of the field. So it was on Saturday at Pimlico, where Nagirroc won the James W. Murphy Stakes.
Nagirroc, the winner of the Grade 3 Futurity at the Belmont at the Big A meeting last October, and a solid third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, kicked off his 3-year-old campaign with a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland on April 7.
Those accomplishments made him a deserving favorite despite breaking from the far outside post in the nine-horse Murphy.
Jockey Flavien Prat took care of the rest.
Newly blinkered Nagirroc came out of the stalls running, was eased back off a burgeoning four-ply speed duel and maneuvered inward.
Heading into the backstretch, Nagirroc was in the preferred garden spot, sitting inside just behind early leader Funtastic Again after splits of 22.44 and 46.15 seconds.
Funtastic Again created separation from outside pace prompter Fadethenoise entering the far turn, but Prat was in no mood to wait. He angled Nagirroc off the rail, and they went right after the front-runner after six furlongs in 1:09.84.
In a simple manner of strides, Nagirroc tucked Funtastic Again into bed, and the race was over. Prat was merely a passenger in the final three-sixteenths as Nagirroc streaked under the wire in a track record 1:33.11 over a firm turf course that yielded quick times all day.
“The horse has turned into a very special horse,” trainer Graham Motion said in the winner’s circle. “He couldn’t have been more professional today.”
Funtastic Again tried his best, but was no match for the winner, and finished 3 1/4 lengths behind. Circling the Drain, making his turf debut, was another neck back. They were followed by Kingfish Stevens, Wonderful Justice, Moonstrike, Top Recruit, Fadethenoise and A Western Yarn. First Mission scratched. Nagirroc paid $4 to win.
Nagirroc is the reverse spelling of his original trainer and part-owner Jim Corrigan, and was purchased privately by Madaket Stables, Little Red Feather Racing and William Strauss following a second-place finish at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Aug. 22.
Transferred to Motion, Nagirroc quickly rose through the ranks, and hasn’t finished off the board after six starts for the barn.
Little Red Feather and Madaket are two-thirds of the partnership that owns Beer Can Man, who won the Jim McKay Turf Sprint earlier on the card. Prat was aboard Beer Can Man as well as Never Explain, the winner of the Grade 3 Dinner Party, also in track record time, a few hours earlier.
Bred in Kentucky by Chervenell Thoroughbreds, Nagirroc is by Lea out of the Zamindar mare Emma Spencer. He has earned $377,550.
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