Field Pass Ekes Out BWI Turf Cup Score
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Photo: Jim Duley/Maryland Jockey Club
Field Pass slips inside Ramsey Solution to win the Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup at Pimlico Race Course
Three Diamonds Farm's multiple graded stakes winner Field Pass squeezed through a narrow opening along the rail in deep stretch and muscled his way to a neck triumph over stubborn pacesetter Ramsey Solution July 24 in the $192,000 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3T) at Pimlico Race Course.
The 15th running of the one-mile BWI Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up anchored four grass stakes worth $500,000 in purses on the Saturday card in Maryland, following wins by Indian Lake in the $100,000 Bald Eagle Derby for 3-year-olds, Can the Queen in the $100,000 Sensible Lady Turf Dash Stakes and Tightly Twisted in the $100,000 Big Dreyfus Stakes, the latter two for fillies and mares 3 and up.
Ridden for the first time by Victor Carrasco for trainer Mike Maker, Field Pass ($3.40), a 4-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid , earned his seventh career win and fourth in graded company after the Kentucky Utilities Transylvania Stakes (G3T) on turf and Ontario Derby (G3) and Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) on synthetic tracks last year.
"We're obviously happy with the win. We had a few anxious moments there, but we're happy he got through and got there," Maker said by phone from Saratoga Race Course. "There weren't a whole lot of instructions. We basically said, 'He's the class of the field, get to the wire first,' and they did."
The winning time was 1:35.12 over a firm turf course. Talk Or Listen , second by a length in the May 15 Dinner Party Stakes (G2T) at Pimlico, trailed runner-up Ramsey Solution by 1 1/2 lengths to show, with Posterity another 3 3/4 lengths back to be last of four. Graded stakes winners Pixelate and English Bee were scratched.
Jockey Mychel Sanchez and Ramsey Solution broke on the outside and were intent on the lead with fractions of :24.59 and :48.33, with Field Pass on the rail and Talk Or Listen with Daniel Centeno on their right hip.
"I saw on the first turn to the backside, Mychel was trying to keep his horse inside and he's fighting with him to keep him on the rail. I had Centeno on my outside with (Talk Or Listen) and I'm just waiting and holding because all my horse wants to do is go. I'm like, 'No, there's not enough room. It's too early yet,'" Carrasco said.
"They didn't give me many instructions. They said, 'Don't fight with him. If (Ramsey Solution) wants to go, let him go. Come around and stalk him, don't let him go free,'" he added. "But, I had somebody on my outside and he wasn't relaxing for me. I was fighting with him behind horses. I had no other choice but to wait, wait, wait, and patience won the race."
Ramsey Solution, winner of the Tapit Stakes last fall at Kentucky Downs, remained in front after going six furlongs in 1:11.55 and straightened for home with Talk Or Listen bearing down on his outside and Field Pass trying to get through on the rail. Ramsey Solution dug in gamely through the lane but Field Pass had just enough room and time to get up two jumps from the wire.
Bred in Maryland by Mark Brown Grier, Field Pass is the third foal and second winner out of the Runaway Groom mare Only Me . Her other foal, an Artie Schiller colt born in 2015, died at age 2.
Field Pass was purchased as a yearling for $37,000 by Owls Bloodstock from the Becky Davis consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings sale in 2018. He improved his record to 7-2-3 from 20 starts, with earnings of $728,143.