Pole Setter Rolls to Victory in Paradise Creek

The initial turf races from Steve Landers' Pole Setter were a mixed bag.

He won his career debut on the lawn at Ellis Park but then finished sixth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Stakes for trainer Brad Cox.

More than eight months later, Pole Setter returned to turf in a manner that begged the question of why it took so long for him to make a comeback.

The son of Take Charge Indy controlled the pace and rolled to a convincing 1 1/4-length victory May 25 in the $100,000 Paradise Creek Stakes, a seven-furlong turf test for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.

"I saw the race a few weeks ago, and I didn't have many options with him. We shipped him up there and he settled in well. It was a step up for him, but it worked out well. We'll look at the national stakes book and see what there is for him, dirt or turf," Cox said.

Though it was ungraded stakes, the victory was noteworthy because of the competition.

The Paradise Creek marked the 2019 debut of Peter Brant's Fog of War, a son of War Front  who came into the stakes with two wins in as many starts, including a victory in the Sept. 16 Summer Stakes (G1T) over War of Will, who won the Preakness Stakes (G1) last weekend.

Sidelined by bucked shins that ended his 2-year-old campaign, Fog of War was sent off as a 4-5 favorite, but the grade 1 winner had no impact on the outcome. He broke sluggishly under jockey Javier Castellano and then lugged in during the stretch run en route to a disappointing sixth-place finish in the field of seven.

"He probably needed the race, and Javier said he wants to go farther," trainer Chad Brown said. "On paper, it looked like a good spot to come back in. He certainly didn't fire, but with this under his belt, we'll go forward running him farther. We'll see how he comes out of this and get him around two turns eventually. Unfortunately, it wasn't his day today."

It was, however, Pole Setter's day as the 4-1 second choice ($10.80) moved forward off a sharp victory by a nose in a Keeneland allowance/optional claimer and posted his third win in nine starts with five thirds and earnings of $178,700. He was timed in 1:20.77 after leading through splits of :23.21, :46.21, and 1:09.15 under Luis Saez.

Marc Keller's Pulsate was second, three-quarters of a length ahead of John C. Oxley's Strike Silver.

Bred in Kentucky by SF Bloodstock out of Irish Smoke, a daughter of Smoke Glacken, Pole Setter was bought by Harry Weisleder for $15,000 from James B. Keogh's consignment to the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale. Afterward, he went to Three Diamonds Farm for $50,000 from the Vinery Sales lot at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale, and then to BSW Bloodstock, Liz Crow, agent, for $220,000 from the Wavertree Stables consignment at the 2018 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.