Jack Hammer Finds Kick for La. Futurity (Males) Win

December 31, 2022

Alied Racing Stable’s Jack Hammer wins the 59th running of the Louisiana Futurity – Colt and Gelding Division. (Hodges Photography/Lou Hodges, Jr.)

Kevin Kilroy/Fair Grounds Press Office

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Allied Racing’s homebred Jack Hammer pressed outside Z Resurrection and overcame a green stretch run to win the $100,000 Louisiana Futurity (boys) by 2 1/4 lengths. Beating a field of seven 2-year-olds, Jack Hammer notched win number 19 for trainer Brett Calhoun who has an impressive eight-win lead in the trainer standings after scoring earlier on the card with Kupuna.

Jack Hammer ran the six furlongs in 1:12.14 across a track listed as good. Rey Gutierrez piloted Jack Hammer, earning his 24th win on the meet and securing his place at the top the jockey standings.   

The field broke cleanly and Jack Hammer emerged from the group, but his inside foe Z Resurrection hustled out to take the lead along the rail running the opening fractions in :22.16 and :46.37 as Jack Hammer settled to his immediate outside. With little change in position throughout the race, the two front runners remained engaged as Calicoco and King’s Lute dueled for third behind them. Jack Hammer wandered greenly but summoned a powerful kick to draw clear of Z Resurrection in the final sixteenth. King’s Lute kept the advantage over Calicoco to finish third in front of that foe.

“He’s a little better on dirt and an off track, so I was kind of hoping this (washed off the turf) would happen,” Williamson admitted. “We were tracking the weather forecast and it came out in our favor. This horse is bred for turf and he’s run well on it, but you just never really know. His last couple numbers (speed figures) on the dirt were very good.”

Jack Hammer is a son of Jimmy Creed out of the Flatter mare Lipstick Junky and was bred in Louisiana by owner Allied Racing. The two-time winner returned $3.40, $2.60 and $2.20 as the 3-5 favorite. 

“They’ve got a great breeding program here in Louisiana,” Chester Thomas of Allied Racing said. “We’ve got Mr. Money standing down here at Clear Creek now. Bret (Calhoun) is off to an awfully good start at the meet. We’ve got a couple seconds that we are hopeful can turn to wins. Bret and Reylu (jockey) are on fire, we are just happy to be a part of it.”

Forward to 14:16 for Race 9.

Stiff Drink, Ranch Water, and Flash N Class completed the order of finish. Steauxlit was scratched.

Jack Hammer netted $60,000 and now boasts career earnings of $90,000 from a record of 2-2-0 in 2 starts.

“This is a nice horse,” Calhoun said. “We’ve liked him from very early on. He’s still very green and inexperienced, but we think he has a very bright future ahead of him.”

Racing at Fair Grounds resumes New Year’s Day at the regular first post of 1:15 p.m. CT. The first stakes action of 2023 will commence on Saturday, Jan 7 with the inaugural running of the $75,000 Gary P. Palmisano Memorial Stakes and the $75,000 Bob F. Wright Memorial Stakes, a pair Louisiana-bred sprints for 4-year-olds and up.

Very well done piece by The King, John Stettin twitter.com/jonathanstetti…

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