Factor This Defeats Somelikeithotbrown in Dinner Party
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Photo: Tom Bolland
Factor This (red cap) leads the way to victory in the Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
Gaining Ground Racing's Factor This, the 4-5 favorite trained by Brad Cox, was a clear 2 3/4-length winner of Pimlico Race Course's $250,000 Dinner Party Stakes (G2T) on the Preakness Stakes (G1) undercard. The consistent 5-year-old earned his fifth victory of the year in seven starts.
Somelikeithotbrown, who chased the front-running Factor This for most of the race, was second, 6 1/2 lengths clear of third-place finisher and fellow Mike Maker trainee Hembree.
Formerly the Dixie, the race returned to its original name, the Dinner Party, this year. It is the oldest stakes race in Maryland.
With Florent Geroux up from the outside post in a field of seven, Factor This broke sharp, but so did Somelikeithotbrown and the two vied for the early lead as the field passed the wire the first time in the 1 1/16-mile turf race. Factor This then eased over toward the rail as the field hit the first turn and Somelikeithotbrown steadied under Paco Lopez.
Irish Strait was in the third slot as they went through opening fractions of :24.28 and :48.74 over yielding going. Factor This clipped his way through six furlongs in 1:13.61 and a mile in 1:39.39 as Somelikeithotbrown made a run at him but was unable to catch him down the stretch.
"The :48 and change is his ballpark and he's even better on the lead," said assistant trainer Ricky Giannini. "Florent rode him just the way we wanted him to. When he cleared and got his position on the rail and got a breather down the backside, I felt that is where he won the race, for sure."
It was the second win on the all-stakes card for Geroux and Cox, who combined to win the Gallorette Stakes (G3T) with Juliet Foxtrot.
Factor This ($3.60), by The Factor out of the Singspiel mare Capricious Miss, was bred in Kentucky by Maccabee Farm. One of his dam's three winners from her four foals to race, he has come to hand at age 5 with successive wins in the Fair Grounds Stakes (G3T), Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes (G2T), Wise Dan Stakes (G2T), and Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup Stakes earlier this year. In his start before the Dinner Party, he was second, caught late by Digitial Age in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic (G1T) at Churchill Downs.
Already a millionaire, Factor This sports a 12-4-4 mark in 32 career starts. The $150,000 first-place money boosted his career mark to more than $1.2 million. He was a $2,700 Keeneland September Yearling purchase and an $11,000 buy at the 2017 Ocala Breeders' Sales' April Auction of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He was claimed for $62,500 by Cox for Gaining Ground Racing in August 2018 at Saratoga Race Course.