Patriots Rule makes up a ton of ground to win John Bullitt Stakes

Patriots Rule raced 20 lengths off the pace halfway through the $50,000 John Bullitt Stakes but rallied, rallied, and rallied some more to win by two lengths Friday night.

One race later, Bourbon Cowboy and jockey Leslie Mawing knifed between horses at the top of the stretch, came inside Hotshot Kid to engage the leader, and then outfought him to the finish, winning the $50,000 Tom Metzen H.B.P.A. Sprint by a head.

Robertino Diodoro trains both those horses, but that hardly was the extent of Diodoro’s night at Canterbury Park. Diodoro had entrants in eight of the card’s 14 races and won five of them. His rival for leading trainer at a meeting that ends Saturday, Mac Robertson, could only muster one win on the card, and the Friday surge pushed Diodoro out to a one-win lead in a trainers’ race that evidently means something to both parties.

Robertson trains Minnesota-bred Hotshot Kid, who battled back gamely when headed by a razor-sharp Bourbon Cowboy but never could quite get back on terms in the H.B.P.A. Sprint. Bourbon Cowboy, claimed for $50,000 in April at Oaklawn Park by Diodoro and owners Randy Howg, Selman Shaby, and Lana Smith, was racing in blinkers for just the third time, and the equipment change apparently worked.

Bourbon Cowboy, a 6-year-old son of Cowboy Cal and the Broken Vow mare First Installment, was coming off a blowout Canterbury allowance-race win and at least ran back to that performance. He stopped the timer in a snappy 1:09.41 for six furlongs on a fast track and paid $6 to win. Exemplar wasn’t close to the top pair but finished third.

Patriots Rule, meanwhile, took all the early betting in the 1 1/16-mile John Bullitt before drifting to 5-2 and paying $7.20 to win. A distant fourth in the 2017 John Bullitt, the one-run closer didn’t have a fast pace at which to run Friday night, the half-mile split posted in a moderate 48.51. But the leaders could only muster a 25.71-second third quarter-mile, allowing Patriots Rule to move into position without having to work so hard that his run flamed out.

Coming hard on the outside under Orlando Mojica, he collared Underpressure in the final half-furlong and drew away in the final stages. Patriots Rule was timed in 1:43.88 as pacesetting Izzy the Warrior held on for third. The winner, owned by Charles Garvey, is a 7-year-old California-bred gelding by Tribal Rule and out of Candy Factory, by Seattle Bound.