Minaret Station. (Courtney Snow/Past The Wire)
38-1 Longshot Upsets
Keeneland Release
LEXINGTON, Ky. – OXO Equine’s homebred Minaret Station rallied from far back to spring a 38-1 upset in the Castle & Key Bourbon (G2) by 1½ lengths over Golden Afternoon.
Trained by Will Walden and ridden by Cristian Torres, Minaret Station completed the 1 1/16 miles over the firm turf course in 1:42.28. It is the first Keeneland stakes victory for Walden.
With the victory, Minaret Station earned a fees-paid berth into the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) to be run Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Clock Tower set the pace with fractions of :22.29, :47.02 and 1:11.79 with Golden Afternoon, Warheart, Reach for the Rose and Cavallo Bay (GB) in closest pursuit while Minaret Station raced near the rear of the 12-horse field.
Getting a ground-saving trip from Torres, Minaret Station began closing in on the far turn and was sixth as the field turned into the stretch. Still fifth at the eighth pole, Minaret Station swung out four wide at the sixteenth pole and rocketed past the dueling leaders for the victory.
Minaret Station is a Kentucky-bred son of Instilled Regard out of four-time Grade 2 winner Beau Recall (IRE). A winner of two of three races, Minaret Station earned $198,013 with the win to boost his earnings to $223,968.
Minaret Station rewarded his backers with payoffs of $78.88, $33.22 and $18.46. Golden Afternoon, ridden by Luis Saez, returned $13.48 and $8.30 and finished a half-length in front of Clock Tower, who paid $6.12 to show under Gerardo Corrales.
It was another half-length back to Cavallo Bay with Warlander, Giocoso, Warheart, Siesta Key, Reach for the Rose, Papiamento, Fleming and Baytown Baracus following in order.
Because the early Pick 5 was not hit at Keeneland today, the carryover of $265,934 will carry forward to the early Pick 5 on Wednesday, when racing resumes with an eight-race program that begins at 1 p.m. ET.
Quotes from the $350,000 Castle & Key Bourbon (G2)
Cristian Torres (winning rider of Minaret Station): “We talked about it in the Paddock, and the first part of the race we just wanted to let him see where he wanted to be. We know from the quarter pole to the wire, he always accelerates pretty good. He broke and I just let him sit wherever he wanted. He was comfortable under me the whole time. On the backside I tapped him on the shoulder when we passed about the five-eighths (pole) and he went to the rail. I just followed (jockey) Jose Ortiz (on Warlander).
“He was in great shape, honestly. At the quarter pole when I tapped him on the shoulder to pick it up, he picked it up very nice. I give a lot of credit to the horse. He was very professional today compared to his first two races, (when he was third at Ellis Park Aug. 5 and first at Horseshoe Indianapolis Sept. 6 in maiden special weight races). (Trainer) Will Walden did an unbelievable job with him.”
Will Walden (winning trainer): “I thought he broke clean, and (jockey) Cristian (Torres) was able to navigate his way to the rail, which is what we wanted to do on the first turn. I didn’t expect him to be almost last. We were kind of toward the back of the pack, when midpack was kind of where we had him spotted. But this turf course has been pretty fair all week. Horses have closed on it well. As he moved up to the quarter pole I was just hoping the speed didn’t back up in his face, and it didn’t. Cristian navigated it beautifully and the horse exploded. He got it done.”
Luis Saez (rider of runner-up Golden Afternoon): “It was a perfect trip. He broke very well. He was right there. When he came to the top of the stretch – he’s still a baby so he took a little while to get going. The outside horse came to him, and he fought to win the race. The other horse (Minaret Station) came flying and beat us. He surprised me; I thought we were going to win. I didn’t expect that, but he really tried hard to win. But that’s racing.”
Gerardo Corrales (rider of third-place finisher Clock Tower): “I had a good horse. I had a good trip. Luis Saez (on Golden Afternoon) and I were fighting because we had the two horses that had to beat each other, but there was an opportunity for the other horse (Minaret Station) to win.”
