Believe in Royalty Determined Maiden Winner Monday; $900,000 Yearling Rallies in Stretch to Capture Second Start
Believe in Royalty Determined Maiden Winner Monday; $900,000 Yearling Rallies in Stretch to Capture Second Start
$900,000 Yearling Rallies in Stretch to Capture Second Start
Live Racing Returns with Nine-Race Program Friday, Oct. 13
LAUREL, MD – Robert Baker, William Mack and Brereton Jones’ Believe in Royalty, a $900,000 yearling purchase last fall making his second career start, gave up the lead in mid-stretch before stubbornly coming on again and edging clear for a determined maiden victory on Monday’s Columbus Day holiday program at Laurel Park.
Ridden by Alex Cintron for trainer Larry Jones, Believe in Royalty ($3.80) ran one mile in 1:39.06 over a sloppy and sealed main track to win the $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-olds by 2 ¼ lengths.
Fitzhugh LLC’s Maryland homebred Broad Surprise broke sharply and went straight to the front from Post 5, while Cintron initially settled 4-5 favorite Believe in Royalty behind horses along the rail before finding an inside seam to quickly get into a contending position.
Broad Surprise and Believe in Royalty dueled through a quarter-mile in 24.47 seconds and a half in 47.33, opening up seven lengths on the rest of the field. They were together in front by 10 after going six furlongs in 1:12.02 and turned for home together, with Broad Surprise briefly putting a head in front until Believe in Royalty fought back again on his inside to gain the advantage and draw away.
Forest Boyce and Broad Surprise finished second, 1 ¾ lengths ahead of late-running Lonely Weekend. Real Factor, Millionaire Runner, Whirlin Curlin and Super Vision completed the field.
Believe in Royalty is a gray or roan son of leading sire Tapit out of the Proud Citizen mare Believe You Can, his price tag matching the highest paid on the second day of the annual auction. Jones trained Believe You Can to eight wins and more than $1.28 million in purse earnings, six of them in stakes, three graded, including the 2013 Kentucky Oaks (G1)
“It was a nice effort,” assistant trainer Corey York said. “We had his mother and she did all right. She was a Kentucky Oaks winner, so $900,000 is hopefully money well spent. He’s probably still figuring it out a little bit. The plan was to come from off the pace but they let him come up the rail so he had to take it.”
Notes: Live racing returns to Laurel with a nine-race program Friday, Oct. 13 starting at 1:10 p.m. The opener, a $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on the All Along Turf Course, drew a field of 12 … Jockey Julian Pimentel had a pair of winners Monday with Ice Tea ($3), entered for main-track-only in 5the fifth race and Here’s Paco ($5.20) in the seventh.
