Uncle Heavy noses El Grande O for Withers victory

Trainer Butch Reid felt if Uncle Heavy had one advantage over his rivals in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct it was his belief his horse wanted every bit of the 1 1/8-miles of the race.

Uncle Heavy, under Mychel Sanchez, needed every inch of the sealed, muddy Aqueduct stretch to run down El Grande O and win the Withers by a nose. It was 2 1/2 lengths back to favored Lightline in third.

Deposition, a 71-1 shot, finished fourth and was followed in the order of finish by Khanate, Speed Runner, Mission Beach, Society Man and Seminole Chief.

The victory was the second straight and third from four starts for Uncle Heavy, a son of Social Inclusion owned by Michael Milam.

Uncle Heavy earned 20 qualifying points toward the May 4 Kentucky Derby.

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“I have always felt all along with this horse, the farther the better,” Reid told the New York Racing Association publicity department. “He certainly proved that today. A mile and an eighth was obviously well within his grasp.”

Reid further explained that Uncle Heavy missed a work and few other mornings of training at Parx Racing due to inclement weather “so for him to go ahead and do that is quite a testament to the horse’s staying ability,” Reid said.

Another plus for Uncle Heavy was that he was four wide on both turns on a track that, at least early on, seemed to favor horses on the inside.

El Grande O, under Kendrick Carmouche, was able to get to the inside but had to deal with some pace pressure from Seminole Chief and Khanate. Though the splits of 24.14 seconds, 49.49 and 1:14.44 weren’t overly fast, the track was pretty demanding.

Seminole Chief was the first to retreat and El Grande O and Khanate were three lengths clear of the field coming to the head of the lane. Khanate faded at the three-sixteenths pole and El Grande O was three in front at the eighth pole. He remained one-paced to the wire before Uncle Heavy got him in the final jump.

“I got a little worried because Kendrick got away from me, but once I went back to my right hand, he took off really nice,” Sanchez said. “We always knew he was going to go long.”

Uncle Heavy covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:53.79 and returned $20.60 to win. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 84.

This was the second straight year a New York-bred trained by Linda Rice finished second in the Withers. El Grande O was much closer than was Arctic Arrogance last year.

“I didn’t really expect that much pressure early, but we had discussed just going ahead and putting him on the lead,” Rice said. “He had been on the lead going shorter. I thought it was a great effort - heartbreaker. I thought we were home at the eighth pole.”

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