Vekoma Notches First Grade 1 Victory in Carter Handicap
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Photo: Coglianese Photos
Vekoma wins the Carter at Belmont Park
Vekoma, a high-class runner at 2 at 3, is now a grade 1 winner as a 4-year-old.
The son of Candy Ride who won the Nashua Stakes (G3) as a juvenile and the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) as a sophomore picked up the first grade 1 of his career June 6 with an easy score in the $250,000 Runhappy Carter Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park, the first grade 1 sprint of 2020 in North America.
Breaking alertly under Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, favored Vekoma settled just off the early pace of American Anthem, who set fractions of :22.38 and :45.02 in the slop. Given his cue on the turn, Vekoma took charge entering the lane and left his foes behind in the stretch, winning the seven-furlong race by 7 1/4 lengths over Network Effect.
"The way he handled the track today was amazing," Castellano said. "I didn't have any concern before the race because I rode him in the slop in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and he loved it—a mile and a quarter was just too far. He cut back in distance, and we got what we were looking for today."
Vekoma was 12th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve at Churchill Downs, his final start at 3 before he returned this year with a victory in the Sir Shackleton Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
The 1-2 finish from Vekoma and Network Effect replicated the colts' first meeting as juveniles in the Nashua at Aqueduct Racetrack in November 2018. In that race, Vekoma defeated Network Effect by 1 3/4 lengths.
American Anthem settled for the show, 1 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up but well clear of fourth-place Firenze Fire.
Majestic Dunhill, Midnightcharly, and Performer were scratched.
Dual grade 1 winner Mind Control disappointed with a sixth. The winner of the Hopeful Stakes (G1) and H. Allen Jerkens Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, he was unplaced for the second time in as many starts at Belmont. He was eighth in the Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) last year after stumbling at the start and running into stretch traffic.
He carried high weight of 124 pounds, spotting his foes between two and eight pounds.
Vekoma, owned by R. A. Hill Stable and Gatsas Stables and trained by George Weaver, finished in 1:21.02, capped by a final eighth of a mile in :12.19. He did so under confident handling from Castellano, who largely hand-rode him while occasionally flashing his whip at his mount down the stretch. He paid $5.30 for a $2 win bet.
As a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" contest, the Carter victory gives Vekoma a paid automatic berth into the Nov. 7 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at Keeneland.
A more immediate prize could be the $500,000 Runhappy Metropolitan Mile (G1) at Belmont July 4, provided the horse does well over the next four weeks.
"I've never had a horse with this much talent and determination. He just knows what he is," Weaver said.
Bred in Kentucky by Alpha Delta Stables, Vekoma was purchased by R. A. Hill Stable for $135,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he was consigned by Lane's End, agent. He is out of Humana Distaff Stakes (G1) winner Mona de Momma, a Speightstown mare whose other foal to race, Bloody Point (by War Front ), won three of six races and $112,980.
Vekoma has now won five of seven starts and $970,525.