Catholic Cowboy Upsets Claiming Crown Jewel
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Catholic Cowboy recovered from two lackluster efforts at Keeneland in the fall to grind out a victory in the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel Stakes Dec. 6 at Gulfstream Park, upsetting a group of 14 older horses at odds of 17-1 .
Trained by Hall of Famer Nick Zito, who also won the 2013 edition of the Jewel with Nevada Kid, Mossarosa's 4-year-old Florida-bred by Heatseeker collected his fourth victory from 18 starts with a strong close under Luis Saez in the 1 1/8-mile event. He finished the distance in 1:49.70 on a fast track, holding off the late run of lukewarm favorite Page McKenney by half a length.
The Claiming Crown Jewel was the last of eight stakes races worth $1 million for racing's blue-collar workers on Gulfstream's opening-day program.
"Gulfstream is always good to us," Zito remarked. "We were talking today, my son Alex and I, about how Gulfstream's been good to us the past decade, longer than that. It's always been a good luck track for us. Our horse seemed to like it."
It was Cerro who struck out for the lead from post 1 in the Jewel, while Saez kept Catholic Cowboy back off the pace after departing quickly from post 4. Although Catholic Cowboy briefly ran up near the lead, Saez took him back to race alternately fourth and fifth as Cerro went the first quarter in :23.61 and followed with a :47.01 half.
Cerro was floating along by two lengths with He's So Fine and Kings Over in pursuit while Catholic Cowboy took the stalking rail trip. When the pacesetter struck for home after three-quarters 1:11.11, Saez set the eventual winner down in a prolonged drive through a 1:36.39 mile.
Closing four-wide in the final furlong, Catholic Cowboy finished determinedly and edged clear.
"He's brave, and when he's brave he gets himself in good position," Saez said. "When we came to the three-eighths pole I saw somebody pass me from the outside and he looked like I was done. But when we turned in the stretch and I started riding him, he responded to me. He just took off. Last year we won the same race, so it feels good to win again."
After breaking his maiden in a seven-furlong claiming race over Gulfstream's main track Jan. 20, Catholic Cowboy picked up back-to-back allowance races this summer, getting up by a neck in a one-mile event July 9 at Belmont Park, then coming back to score by 2 1/2 lengths going 1 1/8 miles on August 16 at Saratoga Race Course. When he failed to run well in his past two races at Keeneland, he was gelded by his connections.
"He went a little funny on us," Zito said. "We didn't understand why, so we did the next best thing and gelded him. That always helps, because the mind goes back to where it's supposed to be. He's been fantastic now. He had some great works. Luis wouldn't give up, and that was the key."
Catholic Cowboy returned $37.80, $15.80, and $10.20. Page McKenney, the slight 7-2 choice over Eriugena, paid $5.60 and $4, with Cerro bringing $7. Eriugena, Kings Over, Cease, Dawly, Congenial, Tenkiller Kid, Tarpy's Goal, Viramundo, Bill of Rights, He's So Fine, and Sinorice completed the order of finish.
Bred by Luis de Hechavarria out of the Meadowlake mare Kombat Lake, Catholic Cowboy was a $12,000 Keeneland September yearling sale purchase in 2011 when sold to Sunny Oak Farm from the Summerfield consignment.
Although he has raced in claiming company, he has never traded hands, trained exclusively by Zito for the family of Joseph and Nina Moss. The Jewel victory improved his record to 4-2-3 from those 18 outs, with earnings of $255,438.
Earlier on the card, J B's Unc won the $110,000 Iron Horse Stakes ; Loverbil took the $110,000 Express Stakes ; St. Borealis won the $125,000 Tiara Stakes ; Best Behavior took the $110,000 Glass Slipper Stakes ; Buster Rose won the $110,000 Canterbury Stakes ; Grande Shores took the $110,000 Rapid Transit Stakes ; and Saffron Hall won the $125,000 Emerald Stakes .
Gulfstream Park's handle Saturday during Claiming Crown Day was up 36% on-track and 13.1% overall over last year's event.
There was a total of $10.06 million wagered on the program compared to $8.8 million in 2013-2014.
"Being up over 10% from last year without the Mid-Atlantic is huge," said Gulfstream Park's vice president of racing and general manager P.J. Campo, alluding to a simulcast signal dispute affecting off-track wagering at 23 tracks. "It was a great day and we had a great crowd. We're disappointed for our customers in the Mid-Atlantic who were not able to wager on such a great card because we were willing to show our signal even during these negotiations."
Gulfstream Park, a track owned by The Stronach Group, is currently involved in an impasse over terms of a new contract between Monarch Content Management and Mid-Atlantic Cooperative.