Pure Sensation Scorches Jaipur Field
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Photo: Rick Samuels
Pure Sensation streaks to victory in the Jaipur.
Patricia Generazio’s homebred Pure Sensation sizzled from gate to wire in a course-record time of 1:06.76 for six furlongs to take the Jaipur Invitational Stakes (gr. IIIT) by a neck over another Generazio homebred, Disco Partner, on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 11.
A 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding, Purse Sensation was sent to the front by jockey Jose L. Ortiz and carved out quick fractions of :21.64 and :44.06 while being pressed by Rocket Heat and jockey Flavien Prat. Pure Sensation continued to lead in the stretch as a wall of horses gave chase, but they could not catch the gray son of Zensational.
The time over the Widener Turf Course eclipsed the previous record of 1:06.82 set by Keep The Faith in 2005.
The winner was making his first start since finishing fifth for trainer Christophe Clement as the 3-2 favorite, only 3 1/4 lengths behind winner Power Alert, in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Feb. 6. He paid $39.20, $17.40, and $9.30. Generazio’s Disco Partner, trained by Jim Ryerson, returned $14.60 and $8.50, with Ready for Rye closing well for third at $4.90. Amerman Racing's 7-2 favorite A Lot finished fourth under Irad Ortiz Jr.
"When this horse is right, he's a top-class horse—and he proved it today," Clement said. "He's not an easy horse to keep right all the time, because he's not the soundest horse. When he's training well, he runs well.
'I'm just thrilled because he belongs to Patricia Generazio. They are great owners and breeders and I think it was a great result for them."
"When the gates opened, he broke good and he wanted to go to the front," Ortiz said. "When we got the lead and he was going good, I looked around and nobody was coming after us. I had a lot of horse so I let him run and he ran great."
The Jaipur marked the second grade III triumph for Pure Sensation, who won the Turf Monster Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Parx Racing last year and extended his record to 5-4-2 from 16 career starts, with earnings of $628,415. The gelding also won the Quick Call Stakes in 2014.
Pure Sensation was produced from Generazio's homebred Pure Disco, a New Jersey-bred mare who won five stakes and earned $496,840.