Serve the King catches Channel Cat in Red Smith
Serve the King bellied down in the stretch to catch Channel Cat and win the Grade 2, $200,000 Red Smith by a neck on Saturday at Aqueduct.
It was another neck back in third to Soldier Rising.
The Red Smith was for 3-year-olds and up over 1 3/8 miles on the grass. The course was firm.
Serve the King ($6.10) rode the rail for much of the Red Smith, as Channel Cat jumped out to a clear lead and set fractions of 24.96 seconds for the opening quarter, 50.62 for the half-mile, 1:15.59 for six furlongs and 1:40.84 for the mile. Serve the King quickened on the final turn, came four wide into the stretch, and kept closing to push past the leader nearing the wire.
“I had a really good trip,” winning rider Irad Ortiz Jr. told the New York Racing Association. “He broke sharp and was forwardly placed. He put me in a good position, so I saved all the ground for the whole race. At the half-mile, I started moving and he responded really well. I was able to tip him out and when he hit the clear, he was running.”
Serve the King covered the inner-turf course in 2:16.60.
Chad Brown trains Serve the King, who was winning his second stakes behind the John’s Call at Saratoga. The horse came into the Red Smith off a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont, a race for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 100.
“His numbers are pretty good, especially for a distance horse,” Brown told NYRA. “He keeps getting faster and he’s a progressive horse.
“He had every right to not get there today given the way the race unfolded and he showed a lot of determination to get up in time.”
Serve the King is a son of Kingman who races for Peter M. Brant. He has now won 5 of 11 starts for earnings of $406,180.