Surgical Strike Sweeps By, Takes Battaglia

Beverly Anderson and Edward Seltzer's homebred Surgical Strike appears headed to the Spiral Stakes (gr. III) after a come-from-behind victory in the $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes March 12 at Turfway Park.

The 3-year-old Kentucky-bred colt by Red Giant had been training at Tampa Bay Downs this winter before trainer Ben Colebrook shipped him to Kentucky for the Feb. 20 WEBN Stakes at Turfway. Surgical Strike rallied for third in that 6 1/2-furlong event and appreciated stretching back out to 1 1/16 miles for the Battaglia Memorial.

Surgical Strike, ridden by Orlando Mojica was well back early through moderate fractions of :23.78 for the opening quarter-mile and :48.08 for a half-mile on the Polytrack surface. After six furlongs in 1:12.49, Surgical Strike began picking up horses and reached the front in mid-stretch as the early leaders packed it in.

Surgical Strike pulled away to win by 2 1/2 lengths over favored Whatawonderflworld, who got the jump on the winner on the far turn but couldn't contain him. Sawyers Mickey, who encountered some trouble on the backstretch, rallied for third.

The final time for the distance was 1:45.12. Surgical Strike, second choice in a field of 12, paid $8.20 to win.

"There was a lot of speed in the race but it didn't go as fast early on as I thought," Colebrook said. "He was a little bit farther back than maybe we drew it up. But the horse has a got a big turn of foot when you cut him loose, so I was never really too worried.

"He's still not used to getting dirt in his face because he has run primarily on the grass until these last few starts, so that was a very good lesson for him. If everything goes right, we'll be back in three weeks (for the Spiral Stakes)."

The Spiral, at 1 1/8 miles, offers a total of 85 points under the "Road to the Kentucky Derby" qualifying system. In eight starts thus far, Surgical Strike, out of the Smart Strike mare Preemptive Strike, has raced six times on turf and twice on Polytrack.

The Battaglia Memorial marked the final race call—at least on a regular basis—for Mike Battaglia, who became the announcer at Turfway in 1973 when it was called Latonia Race Course. He said he plans to return each year to call the race named for his father, John, the longtime general manager at Latonia who created the Spiral Stakes to serve as a Kentucky Derby prep.