Colonel Liam Scores in Debut at Gulfstream After DQ

Robert and Lawana Low's Colonel Liam was all heart in the homestretch of his April 11 maiden special weight debut at Gulfstream Park. 

Battling to the finish with favored Per Capita to his outside, Todd Pletcher trainee Colonel Liam was checked by jockey Luis Saez just before the wire. Saez lodged a claim of foul and was declared the winner by the stewards following a review and the disqualification to second of Per Capita. 

Sent from post 7 in the 10-horse field, Colonel Liam broke sharply and set the pace along the rail, followed closely by Fugitive, who put early pressure on the leader through fractions of :23.46, :45.88, and 1:10.61 for six furlongs. 

Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Per Capita stalked the pace from his own spot on the rail through the backstretch and got within a half-length of Fugitive at the six-furlong mark. Per Capita was guided out as the field turned for home and sidled up to Colonel Liam before putting in a drive at the quarter pole. 

Per Capita and Colonel Liam dueled through the lane, and Per Capita gained the upper hand. Colonel Liam held on gamely in an effort to catch the leader but was bumped by Per Capita in the final sixteenth. Per Capita crossed the wire two lengths ahead in 1:37.91 on a fast track. 

After an inquiry of interference was filed against Per Capita and Gaffalione by Saez, the stewards found that Per Capita had impeded the progress of Colonel Liam, who earned $22,800. Fugitive held for third. 

Bred in Kentucky by Phillips Racing Partnership, Colonel Liam is the third foal out of the unraced Bernardini  mare Amazement. The son of Liam's Map boasts an enviable pedigree, as his second dam was the multiple grade 1 winner Wonder Again, who dominated on the turf between 2002 and 2005. Named Kentucky's champion grass mare of 2004, Wonder Again (by Silver Hawk), took two top-level wins on the grass in the Garden City Breeders' Cup Handicap (G1T) and Diana Handicap (G1T) on her way to earning over $1.4 million in purses. 

Consigned to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale by Darby Dan Farm, Colonel Liam was purchased by the pinhooking partnership of Waves Bloodstock, which resold him for $1.2 million to the Lows one year later under the banner of Wavertree Stables at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. The price was the second-highest at the sale. 

Amazement has a 2-year-old Shackleford filly named Lovely Dee and a yearling colt by Tapiture . She was reported bred to Arrogate  in 2020.