Force the Pass Comes Through in Penn Mile

Force the Pass gamely drove between horses and was up overhaul front-runner Night Prowler in a thrilling finish to the $500,000 Penn Mile (gr. IIT) May 30 at Penn National Race Course .

 

Shuffled back entering the stretch, the Speightstown   colt was angled to running room by Joel Rosario and shot between rivals to enter contention. Night Prowler, who led into the stretch, looked en route to the win, but he was simply overwhelmed when hard-running Force the Pass wore him down late to get the win by a head.

 

"Every time I tried to make a move, it was always somebody in the way, but he got the job done," Rosario said of Force the Pass, who was eighth in the 11-horse field with a quarter-mile to run. "I was between horses the whole time. It's not easy sometimes when you have nowhere to go, but he responded and he's a nice horse."

 

Force the Pass, sent off at 9-1 odds, finished the trip in 1:34.03 on firm turf while posting his first graded stakes win and second stakes victory overall from three wins in five career starts. He impressed his connections last time out when closing to finish second, just three-quarters of a length behind Woodwin W (a nonthreatening 10th Saturday) in the James W. Murphy Stakes May 16 at Pimlico Race Course. That effort followed a breakthrough stakes win in the Cutler Bay Stakes in April at Gulfstream Park.

 

Comanche's Storm and Gallery set the early pace before Night Prowler, rallying four wide on the turn, took over nearing the final furlong but ultimately settled for second. 

 

Granny's Kitten, well back early, was gaining in the stretch before getting a bump from Gallery and finished a commendable third, three-quarters of a length behind Night Prowler. Ocho Ocho Ocho, unplaced in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), was fourth. Papacoolpapacool, the 4-1 favorite, was never a factor in a seventh-place finish.

 

"He ran hard in the Pimlico race and that was the first time he every really ran hard," said trainer Alan Goldberg, who watched the race on television at his home. "The first time he ran, he had no idea what was going on. The second time, he beat the field from the quarter pole to the eighth pole. And same with the next race, that little stakes.

 

"He doesn't train like he just wants to go a mile. He trains like he wants to go all day.  He's kind of a big long horse with a big long stride... He got banged around the whole way."

 

Force the Pass returned $20, $8, and $4.60, Night Prowler paid $5 and $3.60, and Granny's Kitten delivered $4.

 

Bred in Kentucky by Colts Neck Stables and raced by Richard Santulli, Force the Pass is out of multiple grade III winner Social Queen, by Dynaformer. With the $272,000 winner's share of the Penn Mile purse, Force the Pass has career earnings of $306,084.

 

Earlier on the card, Strict Compliance made it three wins in a row when getting up late to win the listed Penn Oaks for 3-year-old fillies in her stakes debut .

 

Third in the early running, the daughter of Into Mischief   began her advance on the final turn and closed through stretch before hitting the front in the final strides, winning by a half length at 2-1 odds from even-money favorite Quality Rocks. Pacesetter Gypsy Judy hung on for third, a neck back. 

 

Time for the one-mile race was 1:34.83 on firm turf.

 

Strict Compliance ($6.20), trained by Chad Brown for Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence, earned the $87,000 winner's share in her fourth career start to boost her lifetime bankroll to $160,100. Bred in Florida, by Mrs. Richard Thompson and Linda Thompson, her dam is the Grand Slam mare Diva Dyna.