Knicks Go Stuns Breeders' Futurity Field at 70-1
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Knicks Go wins the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland
A longshot colt and a hardscrabble rider stunned the crowd Oct. 6 in the $500,000 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland.
At odds of 70-1, KRA Stud Farm's Knicks Go carried Albin Jimenez to his first grade 1 victory with a frontrunning, 5 1/2-length score over 12 juvenile rivals in the 1 1/16-mile test, a Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" event for the Nov. 2 Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Churchill Downs.
The Maryland-bred son of Paynter won the shuffle for the lead headed into the clubhouse turn and relaxed perfectly while setting fractions of :23.67, :47.59, 1:12.68, and 1:37.70. He was never threatened en route to his victory in a final time of 1:44.23, a first top-level win for trainer Ben Colebrook as well.
Knicks Go is also the first grade 1 winner for his WinStar Farm sire. The grade 1-winning son of Awesome Again stood the 2018 season for an advertised $12,500 fee.
"The horse trains real well here, so that's kind of why we took a shot," Colebrook said. "He's always breezed like a good horse. … Albin just stole it, really. They didn't give him any respect, and he got out there and just got to gallop. I could see (Knicks Go) on the backside, his ears were just going. I could tell he was going to run big. But I didn't think he was going to run that big. It was just amazing."
Colebrook said he will "definitely" consider a start in the Breeders' Cup for the colt. Runner-up Signalman, trained by Kenny McPeek, will also train for a trip beneath the Twin Spires.
"We came into this really confident," McPeek said. "He had a lot of trouble at the head of the lane. (Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.) explained it to us and said he got stopped. He said he might have been able to win if that hadn't happened. This horse wants a longer stretch, and he has punched his ticket to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile."
Standard Deviation completed the trifecta. Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner Mind Control, the 7-2 choice on the morning line, was scratched after spiking a fever Oct. 5. The post-time favorite, Dream Maker, finished 12th after clipping heels at the start.
Jimenez, a Panama native who was the top rider in his class at the Laffit Pincay Jr. Jockey Training Academy at Presidente Remón Racetrack near Pamana City, moved to the United States in 2010. He primarily hangs his tack at Turfway Park and Indiana Grand.
"It was pretty easy," Jimenez said of collecting his first grade 1 win. "He broke sharp, so I kept him there (on the lead)."
Knicks Go was entered off a third in the Sept. 8 Arlington-Washington Futurity over seven furlongs on the synthetic surface at Arlington International Racecourse and won for the second time in four starts. He aced his maiden upon debut July 4 going five furlongs at Ellis Park, then was fifth in the six-furlong Sanford Stakes (G3) at Saratoga Race Course July 21 before his Arlington run.
Bred by Angie Moore out of the Outflanker mare Kosmo's Buddy, Knicks Go was an $87,000 purchase from the Woods Edge Farm consignment by Korea Racing Authority at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He sold for $40,000 as a weanling to Northface Bloodstock through Bill Reightler's consignment to the 2016 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.