Layoff No Problem for True Valour in King Leatherbury
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Photo: Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club
True Valour wins the King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel Park
R. Larry Johnson's multiple graded-stakes winner True Valour , an 8-year-old Irish-bred horse racing for the first time in 13 months, made a triumphant return to competition with a front-running victory in the $100,000 King T. Leatherbury Stakes April 23 at Laurel Park.
The 5 1/2-furlong Leatherbury for 3-year-olds and up was one of five $100,000 stakes contested Saturday at Laurel.
Ridden by Feargal Lynch for trainer Graham Motion, True Valor ($8.80) completed the distance in 1:02.10 over a firm All Along turf course for his fifth career stakes win and first since taking the 2019 City of Hope Mile (G3T) and Thunder Road (G3T) in back-to-back starts at Santa Anita Park.
"I think he makes me look good. I thought Larry was crazy when he wanted to bring him back from an injury as an 8-year-old," Motion said. "He's just a really easy horse. He's done everything right since he came in (the) beginning of the year. I was very surprised to see him on the lead, quite honestly."
Though True Valour set a quick opening quarter in :21.89, the pace moderated around the turn with a half-mile in :44.35.
"We slowed it down nice. We weren't getting any pressure, which he was loving," Lynch said. "Coming off that long layoff, I wanted to just try and save a bit and not give him too hard a race.
True Valour was still going strong when Grateful Bred , who jockey Jevian Toledo tipped to the outside around the far turn, ranged up to make a challenge. True Valour kicked in again going five furlongs in :56.02 and had plenty left to hold off Grateful Bred to win by a half-length.
Multiple stakes winner Battle Station rallied up the inside to get third.
True Valour had not run since finishing sixth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the March 2021 Al Quoz Sprint Sponsored By Azizi Developments (G1T) in Dubai.
"He wasn't beaten very far that day. It was a strangely run race, where they split up halfway down the course and it looked like he went on the wrong side of it, but you can't predict that stuff," Motion said. "He's a really honest, hard-knocking horse. Thanks to Larry for picking out this spot today."
Johnson purchased True Valour for $225,000 from the 2020 July Horses of Racing Age Sale at Fasig-Tipton from the Hunter Valley Farm consignment. The son of Kodiak out of the Acclamation mare Sutton Veny also won the Ballycorus Stakes (G3) in 2018 at Leopardstown in Ireland and was second by less than a length in the Joe Hernandez Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita in his only other 2021 start.
"He has a stallion's pedigree, and that was why Larry bought him in the first place," Motion said.
In stakes action that immediately followed the Leatherbury on Saturday, Kaylasaurus defeated Prodigy Doll and Street Lute in the Primonetta Stakes and Deciding Vote upset favored In a Hurry in the Dahlia Stakes. Later, Rough Sea scored a 40-1 surprise in the Native Dancer Stakes, and in the final stakes of the afternoon, favored Chez Pierre scored emphatically in the Henry S. Clark Stakes.