Out On Bail gets reprieve in Skidmore victory
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Out On Bail escaped the $139,500 Skidmore Stakes Friday at Saratoga with a narrow head victory over Jet Sweep Joe, having to survive a claim of foul and jockey’s objection to secure the win.
Out On Bail, under Jose Ortiz, hooked up with Jet Sweep Joe, ridden by Joseph Bealmear, almost from the outset, the two outsprinting the pair of Spiralizer and Classic Time in the scratch-reduced field of four.
In the stretch, Jet Sweep Joe started to come out on Out On Bail, and then late in the game, Out On Bail came in, the two exchanging brushes and then a significant bump late. Out On Bail got up by a head and the inquiry sign was immediately lit followed by the announcement of a jockey’s objection. After a review, the stewards let the result stand.
Ortiz said he understood the claim of foul but didn’t seem concerned the result would get overturned.
“He’s pointing his horse out, laying on top of me almost the whole way. Finally, in the last sixteenth I get to put a head in front,” Ortiz said. “There’s a little bit of dip there in the turf course, my horse switched to his left lead, I came in a bit. Never did we make really hard contact. No hard feelings, I think he rode a good race. He battled down the lane, he pushed me out a bit, I pushed him in a bit. If I would have gotten beat I would have claimed foul, too.”
Bealmear declined to comment, but Paul McEntee, the trainer of Jet Sweep Joe, who also switched back to his left lead in the stretch, felt there should have been a disqualification.
“Both jockeys had their whips out. My jockey had it in his left and Jose had his in his right and they were bumping and banging down the lane, but three strides before the line my horse had his whole back end knocked out of the way,” McEntee told the New York Racing Association publicity department. “I got beat a dirty nose in the photo. He should have come down. My horse ran the best race.”
It was 9 1/2 lengths back to Spiralizer in third. Classic Time finished fourth.
Jet Sweep Joe was running back two weeks after he finished second to Governor Sam in the Tyro at Monmouth. Trainer George Weaver scratched Governor Sam from the Skidmore because he didn’t want to run back in two weeks over a turf course that had give in the ground following Thursday’s rain. Also scratched was Raise the Bar.
Out On Bail, a son of Tiz the Law owned by Paradise Farms, David Staudacher, and Case Chambers, covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:05.00 over a turf course labeled good and returned $5.10 as the favorite.
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