Lone Rock All Alone at Brooklyn Wire
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Photo: Tim Lanahan/Skip Dickstein
Lone Rock wins the Brooklyn Stakes at Belmont Park
Lone Rock was right with the leading bunch through the first mile of the $400,000 Brooklyn Stakes Presented by Northwell Health (G2) June 5 at Belmont Park but, at the finish, he truly was all alone.
With Ramon Vazquez up, the 6-year-old Majestic Warrior gelding shadowed pacesetting Musical Heart down the long backstretch run. He moved to challenge at the quarter pole, shook off a brief bid by Tizamagician at the furlong marker, and was long gone by the time he'd completed the one lap of the course.
The winning margin was 11 1/4 lengths.
Tizamagician, who stumbled slightly out of the gate and started last, also attended the early pace and held the others safe to finish second as Lone Rock reported in 2:28.97 over a track upgraded to fast for the 1 1/2-mile test.
"He was meant to be a good horse," said trainer Robertino Diodoro, who claimed Lone Rock twice last year. "He's a horse that is just getting better. We just have to keep him healthy and happy as long as we can. He loves his job.
"When you have a horse trying to run these distances, you need one who loves to train, and he definitely enjoys training."
Moretti finished third in his first start since Aug. 2 at Saratoga Race Course, the better of two Todd Pletcher-trained runners who represented the home team for the event. His stablemate, Ajaaweed , was coming off a second-place finish behind Musical Heart in the Flat Out Stakes at Belmont April 30. Ajaaweed was not in the mix in the Brooklyn, finishing seventh.
Vazquez said the start helped dictate his race tactics.
"When I saw the other horse that has a lot of speed (Tizamagician) stumble out of the gate, I just put my horse in the best position that I could. I just waited until the end to ask my horse and you can see what happened," the winning rider said.
"It feels awesome."
Tizamagician's rider, Flavien Prat, agreed with that analysis.
"He broke bad," Prat said. "He went straight in the air when it opened. But after that, we regrouped and we had a pretty decent trip after that. … It was a nice effort. You rarely see horses finish when they break like that."
Asked his plans for the winning gelding, Diodoro said at least a brief break is in order with the Birdstone Stakes Aug. 5 at Saratoga a likely target.
Lone Rock, out of the Hard Spun mare Ruby Lips , was bred in Kentucky by Town & Country Horse Farms and Pollock Farms and races for Flying P Stable. His dam's latest offspring include a yearling More Than Ready colt and a Tapit filly born in April.
Diodoro and Bill Mott swapped the gelding back and forth during the last half of 2020 as he was claimed three times—first at Saratoga, then at Keeneland, and finally at Churchill Downs.
Diodoro started his 2021 campaign at Oaklawn Park, where he reeled off two wins and a close second, followed by a third victory in the Isaac Murphy Marathon Overnight Stakes Presented by Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance April 27 at Churchill Downs.
Tizamagician, a 4-year-old Tiznow colt trained by Richard Mandella, came across the continent for the race after a smashing, nine-length victory in the Tokyo City Cup Stakes (G3) April 18 at Santa Anita Park, going the same 1 1/2 miles. Prior to that, he finished fifth in the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) going two furlongs shorter.