Send It In runs down Fox Rules to nose-win Haynesfield

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As the stretch run of Saturday’s $100,000 Haynesfield Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct played out, and 8-1 Fox Rules was continuing on the lead as 1-9 favorite Send It In pursued him, Paul Pompa Jr. was having a flashback.

Pompa, the owner of Send It In, harkened back to 2010, when his 1-9 favorite D’Funnybone was upset by Coffee Boy in the Grade 2 Carry Back Stakes at Calder.

“Everybody treated me really nice and we got beat,” Pompa said. “It’s a horse race.”

The Haynesfield turned out to be quite the horse race as Send It In needed every inch of the stretch of Aqueduct’s inner track and an aggressive ride from Manny Franco to run down Fox Rules in the final jump to win the Haynesfield by a nose. It was 10 1/4 lengths back to Repent Twice in third. Iron Power and Eden Ridge completed the order of finish.

The win was the second straight and eighth from 15 career starts for Send It In, a 5-year-old gelding by Big Brown bred by Pompa and trained by Todd Pletcher.

It was the second of four straight wins on the card for Franco, who also won the second for Pompa and Pletcher on Hard Study ($4.80), the fourth on first-time starter Cloud Computing ($4.30) for trainer Chad Brown and the fifth on Final Chapter ($6.70) for trainer Charlton Baker.

In the Haynesfield, Franco said he was content to sit third, three-wide on Send It In while Kendrick Carmouche had Fox Rules on an uncontested lead through a quarter in 24.74 seconds, and a half-mile in 48.84. Franco moved Send It In into second entering the far turn, but Fox Rules kept on going. Franco went to the whip to keep Send It In’s interest. Send It In was late switching leads, but when he did he found a little bit more - and he needed it - as he just got up.

Send It In covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.83 and paid $2.30 to win.

“I know the horse on the lead, he likes to fight, he’s a runner,” Franco said of Fox Rules. “But I believe in my horse. When he switched leads at the sixteenth pole I knew he was going to give me a little bit more.”

Fox Rules was the lone speed and Carmouche did his best to try and steal the race.

“I tried to run him off his feet where he had to catch me,” Carmouche said. “He ended up catching me. I tried getting away from him around the turn - I did a little - but he still kept running. No excuse, just got beat by a better horse.”

There was $480,624 wagered to show on Send It In out of $508,724 in the show pool.