Trikari holds off White Palomino in Belmont Derby

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - John Velazquez rode Trikari in his career debut last October at Keeneland, where he finished last of 12.

“He was bad in the gate, bad in the post parade, bad in the first turn,” recalled Velazquez, who added that he told trainer Graham Motion “Man, he did everything wrong.“

Trikari has done very little wrong since. On Saturday, at Aqueduct, Velazquez got back on him for the first time since that October day and guided him to a head victory over White Palomino in the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Derby Invitational.

Stalking White Palomino from second, Trikari stuck his head in front at the eighth pole. Though it looked like he was going to open up in the final furlong, Trikari had to hold off a resurgent White Palomino to get the victory, his fourth overall and third in a stakes.

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White Palomino finished second, 1 1/4 lengths ahead of favored Legend of Time. Royal Majesty and Endlessly completed the order of finish.

Trikari added the Belmont Derby to earlier stakes victories in the Rushaway in March at Turfway Park and the Grade 2 American Turf, a race he won at 47-1 odds at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day. Before Saturday, Trikari was beaten a neck when third in the Grade 3 Penn Mile.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised,” Motion said of Saturday’s result. “My only concern was whether he’d get the distance. This horse doesn’t do anything wrong. He’s so impressive in the morning. Physically, he’s such a big, strong, good-looking horse. I trained the mare and I just didn’t think the distance was going to be an issue.”

There wasn’t much speed in the Belmont Derby, but Velazquez didn’t want Trikari to be on the lead. He let White Palomino, under Flavien Prat, have it. Velazquez kept Trikari one length off the pace through splits of 25.00 seconds for the quarter, 50.24 for the half, 1:14.56 for six furlongs and 1:37.79 for mile.

Trikari struck the front in midstretch and though he idled some, according to Velazquez, he was able to outfinish White Palomino.

“He got to him really quickly and I was pretty confident,” Velazquez said. “Then I’m like ‘Ah, come on.’ I needed to be aggressive with him; I wasn’t aggressive enough.”

Tirkari, a son of Oscar Performance owned by John Amerman, covered the 1 3/16 miles in 1:54.71 over firm ground and returned $12.40 as the fourth choice in the field of five.

The win continued what has been a tremendous two months for Motion. Since the beginning of May, Motion is 25 for 78 with five stakes wins.

“We have good horses,” Motion said. “You got to have good horses and we got a nice group of horses and owners.”

For White Palomino, it was the second consecutive graded race that he lost by a head. He fell a head short to Legend of Time in the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge.

Though White Palomino was loose through soft fractions, Prat said that necessarily didn’t work in his colt’s favor.

“Too comfortable,” Prat said. “I was just going too easy. I was trying to get him going a bit on the turn. Once that horse came and hooked up with us, then he got going.”

Legend of Time, under William Buick, was kept in along the rail and behind horses by Junior Alvarado aboard Royal Majesty. By the time Legend of Time got out, he couldn’t quicken enough to catch the leaders.

“They went no pace, stuck in a box, couldn’t get out,” trainer Charles Appleby said. “Put a line through it and head to Saratoga.”

It is likely that Trikari and Legend of Time will both point to the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby, also at 1 3/16 miles, on Aug. 4.

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