Tonalist overpowers short field in Westchester

Tonalist won three graded stakes at Belmont Park last year, and the Tapit colt continued to make “Big Sandy” his personal playground with an eye-catching blowout of Saturday’s Westchester Stakes in his 4-year-old debut.

Spotting his three rivals a few lengths after breaking slowly from the inside post, Tonalist moved into striking distance under Joe Bravo as the quartet raced around the far turn, swung widest into the stretch, and blew past Confrontation, Souper Lucky, and Juba to win going away by 3 1/4 lengths.

“He’s a special horse,” said Bravo, who won the Sheepshead Bay aboard Rosalind earlier on the card. “Everybody knows he’s the Belmont winner. You just don’t know with the time off if he’s going to come back, and [trainer Christophe Clement] warned me. He said, ‘He might be a little slow leaving the gate; the hardest part is just get him running the first part.’

“Once that was all over, down the backside he just pulled us to horses, and it’s just beautiful to ride good horses. It really is. He was a boy [when Bravo rode him in his first two starts at 3], and it’s funny to now see him as a man. He just completely grew into himself.”

Tonalist ($3.80), who took the Peter Pan, Belmont Stakes, and Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont at 3, had not raced as short as one mile since his debut as a 2-year-old. But with blinkers back on, he was sharp enough to get the distance in a brisk 1:34.07 over a fast track and earned $90,000 to bring his career bankroll to $2,042,000 for owner Robert Evans.

“The layoff was not a concern. I thought he trained very well, so I was happy with that,” said Clement. “The mile was a question mark because the horse was very sharp, obviously, last year. For the Travers, we took the blinkers off, put him to sleep a little bit for the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup, where he came from last. We had to wake him up a little bit. He broke a little asleep.

“I thought Joe did a great job putting him in the race. From the half-mile pole, you knew he was traveling very well. It’s fun. That’s what good horses do. They win. I guess we have to think about the Met Mile [on June 6].”

Confrontation finished second by 1 1/4 lengths over Souper Lucky, with Juba completing the order of finish.

Morning-line favorite Palace Malice, who won the Belmont in 2013 and last year took the Westchester and the Met Mile, was scratched Thursday due to a bruised right front foot.