Clock Tower. (Susie Raisher)
By Mary Eddy
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Wesley Ward made the correct decision between three races for Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s graded stakes-winner Clock Tower, who led each step of the way to capture Saturday’s Listed $150,000 Paradise Creek, a six-furlong outer turf sprint for sophomores, at Belmont at the Big A.
“I was really excited about that,” Ward said. “He is a really nice, honest, and ultimately sound horse. Never had any issues since Day One. He is just a gem of a horse to train.”
The gelded son of Not This Time was cross-entered in both the James W. Murphy last Saturday at Pimlico Race Course and the Grade 3 Penn Mile next Friday at Penn National, but Ward opted for a trip to the Big A, where the talented dark bay notched his second career stakes win after taking the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille as a juvenile in December at Del Mar.
“We were kind of looking to stay off soft turf,” Ward explained. “We kind of rolled the dice today that it wouldn’t be too soft, and I guess it wasn’t. We had him cross-entered down in Maryland and we opted for this one because we thought that the grass was soft there. I also had him entered in Pennsylvania next Friday, because maybe it would be too soft today, but we rolled the dice, he was doing well, and it proved alright for us.”
In victory, Ward captured his ninth race from 11 starts at Aqueduct Racetrack this year, with his other two runners finishing second and third. Among his wins are additional stakes scores in the Grade 3 John A. Nerud [Whatchatalkinabout], Busanda [Running Away] and state-bred Broadway [Landed].
Clock Tower found the Paradise Creek winner’s circle with a pacesetting trip engineered by Junior Alvarado, the pair breaking from post 5-of-9 and sweeping past a sharp-starting Warheart to mark the opening quarter-mile in 22.52 seconds over the good footing under pressure from Jet Sweep Joe to his outside.
Jet Sweep Joe crept closer down the backstretch and came to even terms with Clock Tower midway through the turn as Super Swift attempted to advance up the rail and Warheart spun his wheels in the three-path through the half-mile in 45.66.
Clock Tower needed little urging in the lane to keep Jet Sweep Joe at bay, staying well clear at the eighth pole as 42-1 longshot Flat to Da Mat ducked down to the rail and put in a belated bid under Dylan Davis. Insubordination made mild progress between rivals in the center of the course, but it was Clock Tower’s time to shine as he crossed the wire 1 1/2 lengths in front in a final time of 1:09.49.
Flat to Da Mat held place by a neck over Insubordination with Jet Sweep Joe completing the superfecta. Assertiveness, Supersonic Blue, Warheart, Pivotal Moment and Super Swift completed the order of finish.
Alvarado, aboard for the first time in the afternoon, said he did not anticipate setting the pace atop a horse that had not sprinted since a third in his five-furlong debut last May.
“I watched some of his races and he’s been running long. I thought I was going to be maybe fourth or fifth – the way it looked on paper, there was a lot of speed there,” said Alvarado. “When he broke good, I let him go and find his rhythm and I was kind of shocked that I ended up on the lead. I just had to keep going at that point, and he kept finding more for me.”
Davis said the Mike Maker-trained runner-up Flat to Da Mat was athletic as he maneuvered around a tiring Super Swift in the stretch.
“There was a lot of speed on paper and that’s what showed up today. I broke as best as possible and settled into the third flight onto the rail and I just bided my time letting him relax,” said Davis, who guided the dark bay to a third-out graduation in November here. “I went around the one horse into the quarter-pole there and darted back to the rail. He responded really nicely down the lane and galloped out in front. I thought it was a solid effort.”
Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm, Clock Tower was a $100,000 purchase at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and is out of the graded stakes-winning New York-bred Bustin Stones mare Hot Stones. He banked $82,500 in victory while improving his lifetime record to 8-3-1-2 and returning $9.30 on a $2 win bet.
Live racing continues on Memorial Day weekend on Sunday at Belmont at the Big A with a nine-race card, and on Holiday Monday with a nine-race program. First post for both days is 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Live racing will then move upstate for the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course from June 4-8 before returning to the Big A on Thursday, June 12.
