“We talked about this a yr and a half in the past,” he stated. “We talked about by no means placing a horse in if it wasn’t prepared, it wasn’t match. And we simply knew that we had a shot as a result of each time he went longer, he obtained higher. And at present we go to a mile and 1 / 4 and he simply saved going.”
Each Dawson and Reed gave credit score to a artful experience by Leon, a Venezuelan, who appeared as if he had lower his tooth in Saratoga reasonably than Ohio’s Thistledown. To place Leon’s drive and place in horse racing’s hierarchy into perspective, solely 10 jockeys gained extra races than he did in 2021.
Sixty 5 of them, nevertheless, made more cash than he did.
Leon guided Wealthy Strike nearly 90 levels out of the gate, going from the twentieth path to the within. Then, they rode the rail like a few hobos.
Leon and his colt have been unhurried as they adopted 17 different horses chasing a depraved early tempo into the far flip.
“No one is aware of my horse like I do know my horse,” Leon stated.
Leon began guiding his horse via the pack, zigzagging like somebody late for work on a busy Manhattan sidewalk. Forward of them, Epicenter and Zandon appeared one another within the eye for what was going to be duel to the wire in the midst of the observe.
“I needed to wait till the stretch and that’s what I did,” Leon stated, “after which the rail opened up.”
Each Brown and Asmussen have been leaning towards the winners’ circle. One in all them, absolutely, was going to finish up there. As an alternative, Leon and Wealthy Strike flashed previous them like a bottle rocket.
“I obtained beat by the horse that simply obtained in,” Asmussen stated.
Brown was equally forlorn, sighing, “He simply snuck up our inside.”
