Cairo Cat Edges Tight Ten for Iroquois Win
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Photo: Coady Photography
Cairo Cat wins the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs
For a moment during the $150,000 Iroquois Stakes (G3), it appeared Walking L Thoroughbreds' Cairo Cat wouldn't get the chance to show his best.
With favored Tight Ten clear on the front and Cairo Cat locked in on the rail in tight quarters Sept. 15, jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. finally got the 2-year-old Cairo Prince colt out into the clear, and he was able to reach his best stride.
Off the rail and on the outside in the final sixteenth of the 1 1/16-mile dirt test at Churchill Downs, the Ken McPeek-trained Cairo Cat surged by the frontrunning Tight Ten late to win by a half-length.
"This was my first time I was on him and I thought to myself how smooth he was going," Hernandez said of the stalking trip in fifth, as Tight Ten was pressured by My Sixth Sense through fractions of :24.03, :48.74, and 1:14.06. "He traveled well the whole way around. He certainly didn't travel like he was a 2-year-old. It's easy to put in those type of rides with a horse that has that much confidence to put himself in spots like that."
Off at 6-5 in the 12-horse field, Tight Ten put away all but one challenger in the stretch, and had a 1 1/2-length lead with a furlong to run before 17-1 Cairo Cat spurted by to finish off the distance in 1:45.35.
"My horse ran well going around two turns for the first time," said jockey Ricardo Santana Jr., who rode Tight Ten to a second-place finish last time out in the Aug. 12 Saratoga Special (G2). "I thought we were going to get there."
The grade 3 victory came just more than a month after Cairo Cat won a seven-furlong maiden special weight washed off the turf at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 11, and made him the first black-type winner for Airdrie Stud stallion Cairo Prince, a Pioneerof the Nile son who stood the 2018 season for a $25,000 fee.
"This is a really nice colt," said McPeek's assistant, Greg Geier. "Kenny told me after he broke his maiden to try the Iroquois and here we are. He worked really well last week. We'll see how he comes out of things but it's nice the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) is right here in our backyard."
Pole Setter completed the trifecta 3 1/4 lengths back and was followed by Tobacco Road, Everfast, Synthesis, Manny Wah, Royal Urn, My Sixth Sense, Hog Creek Hustle, Mr Wrench It, and Drunk as a Skunk, to complete the order of finish.
Bred in Kentucky by Clifton Farm out of the Tale of the Cat mare La Belle Cat, Cairo Cat has two wins from three starts and $133,750 in earnings. He was a $130,000 purchase from his breeder's consignment to the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select Yearling Sale.