Leave the Light On Can't Be Caught in Remsen
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Leave the Light On, owned by Klavarich Stables and William Lawrence, rode the rail at Aqueduct Racetrack to a wire-to-wire victory Nov. 29 in the $400,000 Remsen Stakes (gr. II) for 2-year-olds .
With Jose Ortiz riding for trainer Chad Brown, Leave the Light On, a 4 1/2-length maiden win in his previous start, grabbed the early lead in a 13-horse field and never looked back to hold off 9-5 favorite Frosted to win by a half length. Keen Ice was third, eight lengths behind Frosted, and Classy Class fourth on a day that favored inside speed.
Leave the Light On, a Kentucky-bred colt by Horse Greeley out of the Mineshaft mare Lantern Glow, broke on top from post 7 and set fractions of :24.51 for the opening quarter-mile, :48.91 for the half-mile, 1:13.41 for six furlongs, and 1:37.11 for one mile while tracked by Classy Class. Frosted, who sat in third most of the way, rallied three-wide on the final turn and took aim at the leader, but couldn't get past the front-runner.
The time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:51.06 on a track rated fast.
Leave the Light On , who had no run in his career debut before his maiden victory, paid $15.60, $6, and $4.20 across the board as part of any entry with seventh-place finisher Market Conduct. Frosted, also coming off a maiden win, paid $3.90 and $2.90. Keen Ice returned $5.70 to show. The exacta paid $49.80 and the trifecta was worth $1,163.
"A couple years back, we had that narrow defeat in the Remsen with Normandy Invasion, where he was in front right by the wire and Overanalyze came back and bobbed him," Brown said. "Ever since then we've been determined to come back and put our head in front. So it was good we got to do it today. We were using him as a work horse with the other couple of horses I had nominated for this race, and he kept outworking them. Jose came out and got to know him the last couple of times and I think that made this difference.
"Watching the card earlier, speed was very good, especially from the inside. This horse has speed, and on the stretch-out (to) two turns, he's going to put himself on or near the lead. It's (also) his first time on a dry track. We bought him with the two-turn dirt races in mind. If he's good enough, he'll get better as the distances go on."
Ortiz said he got a perfect trip.
"The way the track is playing today helped me a lot. We broke good and the plan was to take the lead like Chad told me. He was relaxed, I tried to slow him down as best I could, and when I asked him to go he was there."
Leave the Light On, bred by All Gold Racing, sold to Grand Oaks for $65,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky select yearling sale and then to Klaravich Stables for $210,000 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training this year.