HALLANDALE BEACH, Florida, Barbadian trainer Saffie Joseph Jr ended a dominant 2022 in the same vein in which he started when his 3-1 choice Skippylongstocking brushed aside the three-year-olds and upward to win the US$150 000 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes on New Year’s Eve.
One of the highly regarded entrants alongside stablemate and favorite O’Connor, Skippylongstocking with Irad Ortiz Jr aboard, stalked pacesetter Pioneer of Medina before grabbing the lead at the far turn, storming to the finish two lengths clear in a time of one minute, 42.76 seconds.
At odds of 12-1, Pioneer of Medina finished second while 2-1 chance Simplication ran third in the Grade III event over a mile and sixteenth at Gulfstream Park.
With the victory, Skippylongstocking clinched his place in the Grade I $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational at month’s end.
“It was a game effort by Skippy. He’s a horse that tries, and he runs hard,” said the 35-year-old Joseph, the defending champion in the recently minted Championship campaign at the south Florida venue.
“He had a perfect trip, except when he went to switch leads in the backstretch. It looked like something had gone wrong. Irad said that there was poop on the track, and he jumped it. It scared me.”
He added: “O’Connor disappointed. He’s better than that. He’s much, much better than that. Seeing how the race unfolded and the speed kept going around, maybe that was it, but I couldn’t buy that.
“He made up ground and hit a flat spot. Hopefully, he will come out well, and we’d like to give him a chance in the Pegasus.”
With success, Ortiz pinched a record 50th graded stakes victory, said: “The trainer told me to ride him wherever he’s comfortable. He broke into a good position.
“I was in a good forward place, and I go from there. When I asked him, he had plenty in the tank.”
Pioneer of Medina, under Luis Saez, produced fractions of 23.75 seconds for the quarter mile and 47.14 for the first half, with Skippylongstocking in pursuit and 118-1 bet Cooke Creek and Simplication stalking.
Once Ortiz swept his three-year-old bay colt to the front, the rest of the field was left battling for the remaining places.
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