Royal Son Easily Captures Battaglia Memorial

WinStar Farm's homebred Royal Son found a change of scenery and equipment to his liking as evidenced by a strong front-end victory in the $125,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes Feb. 28 at Turfway Park .

Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Rodney Prescott, Royal Son crossed the wire on top for the first time in five races. The 3-year-old Kentucky-bred colt by Tiznow   out of the A.P. Indy mare Mama Nadine broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park in January when he was placed first on a disqualification.

Royal Son, equipped with blinkers for the first time in his first start on Polytrack, broke on top from post 3 in the 10-horse field and quickly found the rail as heavily favored The Great War, from the outside post, rushed up to grab the second spot. Royal Son went :24.80 for the opening quarter-mile, :49.58 for the half-mile, and 1:13.79 for six furlongs under pressure to his outside from The Great War, winner of the 96ROCK Stakes at Turfway in his previous start.

What appeared to be a two-horse race turned into a one-horse race when The Great War, at 2-5 odds, suddenly dropped several lengths behind Royal Son entering the stretch. Prescott kept after Royal Son and the colt pulled away to an easy 5 1/4-length win in 1:46.84 for 1 1/16 miles.

Pepper Roani rallied from well back to finish second, 12 3/4 lengths ahead of Milwaukee Mist in third. The Great War checked in last; it was found that the colt bled despite having been treated with the anti-bleeding medication furosemide.

Royal Son proved a good pickup mount for Prescott, who rides regularly at Turfway from December through March under sometimes less-than-ideal conditions. It was almost comfortable at Turfway Saturday night with the temperature in the upper 20s at race time.

"I was able to slow the pace for the first part of the race, and I had plenty of horse left in the stretch," Prescott said.

Prescott and WinStar teamed up in the previous race with first-time starter Fourth Quarter, a homebred 3-year-old colt by Distorted Humor   who broke his maiden wire-to-wire in a one-mile maiden special weight event.

Pletcher assistant Dermott Magnier said Royal Son came to Turfway after a seventh-place finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (gr. III) at Tampa Bay Downs Jan. 31 for a change in racing surface. The colt's other four races were on dirt.

"I think the addition of blinkers helped him, and it looked like he appreciated the surface," Magnier said. "There's a nice break between this race and the Spiral, so we'll be talking with the owners and probably will come back here."

The $550,000 Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes (gr. III) at 1 1/8 miles is scheduled for March 21 at Turfway. It is a "Road to the Kentucky Derby" points event.

Royal Son paid $20.60, $9.40, and $8.60 across the board in the Battaglia Memorial. Pepper Roani, who was coming off a maiden win with first-time blinkers, returned $12.20 and $7.60, while Milwaukee Mist, fifth in the 96ROCK, paid $24.60 to show. The $2 exacta returned $235.80 and the $2 trifecta $4,817.

Royal Son now has two wins and two seconds in five starts.