Surgical Strike Gets His Graded Stakes Win
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Photo: Four Footed Fotos
Surgical Strike (outside) wins Arlington Classic May 28
The addition of blinkers and a dawdling pace may have helped, but in any event the consistent 3-year-old Red Giant colt Surgical Strike finally broke through for his first grade stakes victory May 28 at Arlington International Racecourse.
Bred and owned by Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson, Surgical Strike won the $100,000 Arlington Classic (gr. IIIT) for 3-year-olds under James Graham for trainer Ben Colebrook. The trainer before the race said he hoped blinkers would put the late-running colt closer to the pace early on, and that's how it turned out.
Surgical Strike, out of the Smart Strike mare Preemptive Strike, sat along the inside in fourth for most of the 1 1/16-mile stakes before Graham guided him to the outside in the stretch. The Kentucky-bred rallied to defeat One Mean Man by a head, with Swagger Jagger third.
Three-quarters in the Classic was timed in a slow 1:17.21 on yielding turf. Surgical Strike, the favorite, finished up in 1:47.51.
"He put me there in a position I didn't really want to be in, but they were going so slow," Graham said. "He was always going well. He's tough, well-skilled, and he knows his job."
Surgical Strike, who never has started on dirt, has raced 11 times since his debut last August at Ellis Park. He broke his maiden in his second start, a $122,200 maiden special weight event at six furlongs on the grass at Kentucky Downs last September.
After a trip to Gulfstream Park earlier this year, Surgical Strike returned to Kentucky for three Polytrack races at Turfway Park. He finished third in the 6 1/2-furlong WEBN Stakes and the won the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.
That set him up for the 1 1/8-mile Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino Spiral Stakes (gr. III), which offered 50 points to the winner on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Surgical Strike missed winning the $500,000 event by a half-length in a third-place finish.
Surgical Strike followed up with another third, again from off the pace, in the $300,000 American Turf (gr. IIT) at Churchill Downs. With three wins, one second, and three thirds, the colt has earned $290,813.