Clock Tower. (Benoit)
‘Keen’ Repeats in ‘Liberal’
Del Mar Release
DEL MAR, Calif.—Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s Clock Tower, who had the good luck to have Hall of Famer John Velazquez in the saddle as they “walked the dog” through the early part of the one-mile Cecil B. DeMille Stakes, scored a two and a half-length victory in the juvenile turf test Sunday.
The gelding by Not This Time “got away with” a :25.13 second quarter in the race and was full of pep when the real running began. He drew away from his six rivals and scored his first stakes triumph in his fifth career start under the guidance of trainer Wesley Ward. Final time for the race was 1:36.78.
“Beautiful, perfect trip. Kind of what we were hoping. There was really no speed, on paper anyway,”Blake Heap, assistant to Ward remarked.
“When I saw the fractions, he almost went :49 for the half and he’s been running :47 and still hanging pretty hard. He’d been training here so good; I really liked him. He’s (John Velazquez) a good speed rider. He knows the pace.”
The Grade III DeMille carried a pure of $101,000 and rewarded the winner with a purse of $60,000, which increased his earnings to $225,938.
Finishing second in the grass offering was Nguyen and Tran’s Scipio, who had a length and a quarter on third-place finisher Origami, who races in the silks of Grund, Berk or Oster, et al.
“I rode this horse for his first two starts back east and you can see what a good job Wesley (trainer Ward) has done with him. He’s grown up; he’s matured,” said Velazquez.
“Today when I got away with that second quarter (:25.13), I knew they were going to have a tough time catching us. Then, when I asked him, he went. He’s turning into a good one.”
Fractions: :23.62 :48.75 1:13.72 1:25.42 1:36.78
The stakes win was the second of the meet for rider Velazquez, but his first in the Cecil B. DeMille. He now has 11 stakes wins at Del Mar. It was the first of the meet for trainer Ward and his first in the Cecil B. DeMille. He now has 13 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The winning owner is Mrs. Fitriani Hay of West Sussex, United Kingdom.
Earlier on the card, the Irish-bred gelding Unconquerable Keen allowed trainer Phil D’Amato to keep his record intact by winning the third of three runnings of the $102,000 Stormy Liberal Stakes by half a length. It was the 5-year-old’s second straight tally in the five-panel sprint stakes on Del Mar’s lawn.
Umberto Rispoli rode the winner who came from off a fast pace to click for his seventh victory in his 20th start. The veteran is a son of the Danehill stallion Clodovil and he earned a check for $60,000 for his work to push his bankroll to $333,089. He’s owned by the partnership of CYBT, Aldabbagh or Nentwig.
“I got a little bit of squeeze, but I knew the pace was definitely going to be crazy fast. And he’s a horse that, every time, he has the tendency to run off a little bit so, with Phil (D’Amato) we tried to relax him, even in the morning, to try and make him understand to go slow in the beginning and then to use his turn of foot in the end,” said Rispoli.
“So, it worked out pretty well and you know he is the kind of horse, if you let him run too much, then you will be empty at the end. So, the fact that the pace was hot and fast in the beginning, helps me a lot. I was traveling (behind) the right horses, and you know, once I came to the top of the stretch I had the right momentum, and once I tapped him, he really finished strong”.
Finishing second was the same ownership group’s Sorrento Sky, who had a length on Brown, Klein or Lebherz’s Boss Sully.
D’Amato saddled the 2022 winner of the Stormy Liberal – Turn On The Jets – and then Unconquerable Keen last year.
Final time for the dash was :56.32. The winner returned $13.60 to his backers in the final-day crowd.
Fractions: :21.57 :44.54 :56.32
“We thought there was going to be a bunch of speed and it was just going to be who got the trip. I got to give Umberto (Rispoli) credit for working with Unconquerable Keen and getting him to settle and finish again. He lost his style in the summer meet and we went back to the basics to get him to relax and finish better,” commented D’Amato.
Rispoli won his first in the Stormy Liberal and now has 35 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The stakes win was third of the meet for trainer D’Amato won his third in the Stormy Liberal with 65 stakes Del Mar wins
The winning owners of the Irish-bred winner are CYBT (John Rochfort of San Jose), Aldabbagh or Michael Nentwig of Del Mar.
The two stakes were part of the closing day card at the seaside oval.
