Takeover Target Kicks to Hill Prince Victory
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Photo: Coglianese Photos
Takeover Target rallies to win the Hill Prince.
Takeover Target ground out his second graded stakes victory of the year in the $500,000 Hill Prince Stakes (gr. IIIT) over the inner turf course at Belmont Park.
Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's 3-year-old son of Harlan's Holiday benefitted from a ground-saving trip under jockey Jose Oritz through much of the 1 1/8-mile turf race, as longshot Vision Perfect set the pace early through fractions of :25.18, :50.82, 1:15.20, and 1:39.05.
Coming out of the second turn, Vision Perfect stayed along the rail and Takeover Target moved to his outside. A sixteenth of a mile from the wire it appeared as though Vision Perfect would take the race gate-to-wire, but Takeover Target kicked past to win by two lengths. The final time was 1:51.42 on soft ground.
"The first time we ran him he ran well over yielding ground right here at Belmont, so we were confident he'd be able to handle it," said trainer Chad Brown. "His last race was disappointing. He was training so well going into the Saranac and he just didn't fire. In hindsight, he might have bounced a little bit out of the Hall of Fame win. He had a little time to recover for this race, got soft ground and a great trip. It all came together for this horse today."
Takeover Target is out of the Empire Maker daughter Vanquished and was bred in Kentucky by Dorothy Matz. The colt was bought for $175,000 by agent Mike Ryan out of the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale out of the Claiborne Farm's consignment.
The Hill Prince win gave Brown his second graded victory of the day; the New York conditioner won the Flower Bowl Stakes (gr. IT) earlier with Stephanie's Kitten. Takeover Target has now won two graded stakes this year and has career earnings to date of $603,200.
The winner paid $12, $6.90, and $6. Vision Perfect paid $21.60 and $13.80, and Great Dancer paid $11.60. The $2 exacta paid $208.50, and the $2 trifecta paid $2,275.
World Approval finished fourth followed by Jay Gatsby, Royal Albert Hall, Money Multiplier, Tale of Life, Macher, Winter Springs, and Courtier.