Deterministic and Kendrick Carmouche take the Fourstardave (Janet Napolitano)
NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – St. Elias Stable, Ken Langone, Steven Duncker and Vicarage Stable’s Deterministic pressed longshot pacesetter My Boy Prince into the stretch before rocketing past once straightened for home and pulling clear to a 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 FanDuel Fourstardave, at Saratoga Race Course.
The one-mile Fourstardave for 4-year-olds and up on the inner turf course, an automatic qualifier for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Mile November 1 at Del Mar, was the second of five-graded stakes worth $3.2 million in purses on a stacked 13-race program.
It was the seventh win from 13 starts and third in a row for Deterministic, coming eight weeks after giving trainer Miguel Clement his first career Grade 1 victory in the Resorts World Casino Manhattan to close out the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. The current streak has come with jockey Kendrick Carmouche aboard.
“This is great. It is very rewarding. He was my first Grade 1 winner. It’s a great day. He is top class,” Clement said. “He looked great. He has tactical speed so you can use it. He was moving very well. I think Kendrick was just waiting to make his move. When he went for it, he went big. The horse delivered. He is a top-class horse. He’s won on multiple surfaces over a wide range of distances. He makes us look good because he is top-class.”
Carmouche and Deterministic broke alertly from post 8-of-10 and immediately latched onto the right hip of June 8 Grade 1 Jaipur runner-up My Boy Prince, stretching out after three straight sprints to start the year. The opening quarter-mile went in 23.83 seconds over a course rated firm, with Grade 1-winner Win for the Money racing in a tight group for third with fellow Grade 1-winner Spirit of St Louis and Lagynos.
Clement said he was pleased with the early positioning of Deterministic behind the Jose Ortiz-piloted pacesetter My Boy Prince.
“I told Kendrick to break well the first 50 yards, and then you decide to either go for it or sit in second,” Clement said. “On paper, those were the two most logical speeds. They were able to dictate the pace and control it from the front end. It made the closers virtually impossible to come back.”
Ortiz and My Boy Prince maintained their advantage after going a half-mile in 47.56 seconds and six furlongs in 1:10.77, with Carmouche giving Deterministic his cue leaving the far turn. Deterministic swung wide at the head of the lane and was set down for a drive, reeling in a stubborn My Boy Prince approaching the eighth pole and going on to win in 1:33.87. Sent off at 9-2, Deterministic returned $11.20 on a $2 win bet.
“My horse broke very good like always. I saw Jose Ortiz ride his horse out of there pretty good, and once I looked around and I saw nobody that was within a length and a half behind me in the first quarter of a mile, I pressed the e-brake, just let him settle,” Carmouche said. “I thought when I turned on the backside, he had a horse run up on the backside of him, about a length and a quarter, and man, you can feel him – he [was] wanting to go and I say, ‘Oh, I’m OK, I can feel him.’
“I thought they went a pretty slow pace for these types of horses. Once I got to the turn, I let Jose’s horse switch leads and I just figured I should bring the race to him because my horse runs good around the turns,” he added. “He loves to hold horses off because he loves to feel it whenever they’re coming, so with that being said, I thought I’d done the right thing out there to make us a successful [team] today.”
Intellect, coming off a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Kelso going one mile July 5 at Saratoga, closed stoutly to get second by three-quarters of a length over Win for the Money, who edged My Boy Prince by a nose for third.
It was another head back to Think Big in fifth followed by Cugino, Lagynos, Spirit of St Louis, Johannes and Neat. Grade 1 winner Johannes, the West Coast-based 9-5 favorite making his Saratoga debut, broke inwardly and bumped with My Boy Prince out of the gate then was rank and in tight quarters heading into the first turn and never got into contention. Neat was pulled up after the wire and provided a precautionary ride back to the barn area in the equine ambulance.
Bred in Kentucky by Hinkle Farms, Deterministic notched his sixth graded-stakes victory and extended a streak that began with a track record-setting triumph in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy in May at Belmont at the Big A.
A graded-stakes winner on turf and dirt, the $625,000 purchase at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale won the Grade 3 Gotham as a sophomore before finding his best stride on turf in the latter half of his 3-year-old campaign. He has been third or better in 11-of-13 starts and banked $412,500 in victory to push his career bankroll to just shy of $2 million.
Ahead of a possible Breeders’ Cup start, Clement said Deterministic could run in either the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile September 13 or the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile October 4 at Keeneland.
“I’ll speak to the connections,” Clement said. “Let’s see how he comes out of it and then we’ll come up with a plan afterwards.”
Live racing resumes Sunday at Saratoga with a 10-race card, featuring the Grade 3, $175,000 Adirondack in Race 4 and the Grade 2, $300,000 Troy in Race 8. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
