Saturday’s $125,000
Cliff
Hanger S. (G3) went right down the wire, with BRAVE TIN SOLDIER (Storm Cat)
out-finishing Pleasant Strike (Smart Strike) by a nose in the 1 1/16-mile turf
affair at Meadowlands. Owned and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Brave Tin Soldier
rallied from last to first to register his first graded stakes victory,
improving his overall mark to 25-4-4-2, $324,158, and the five-year-old horse
paid $11.60, $5.40 and $3.20 as the near 5-1 fourth choice.
Get Serious (City Zip) established early splits in :24, :48 2/5 and 1:12 over
the yielding turf, but the 9-5 favorite couldn’t sustain his speed and wound up
fading to fifth in the six-horse field. Pleasant Strike split rivals in upper
stretch to reach the front, passing the mile mark in 1:36 2/5 with a head
advantage, but Brave Tin Soldier got up in the final strides on the outside,
stopping the teletimer in 1:42 2/5.
Pleasant Strike, who was off at nearly 3-1, returned $3.20 and $2.60, and the
5-2 Kiss the Kid (Lemon Drop Kid), who finished 2 1/4 lengths back in third,
gave back $2.60. The exacta paid $46, and the 2-5-7 trifecta was $159.60.
Vanquisher (Gulch) came next under the wire, and At the Disco (Disco Rico)
trailed in sixth. Even Raise (Stephen Got Even) and Nergal (Fr) (Simon du
Desert) were scratched.
Bred in Kentucky by ClassicStar, Brave Tin Soldier broke his maiden in
Ireland and captured the 2006 Blenheim S. at The Curragh. The bay horse made his
U.S. debut at Belmont Park in May and entered the Cliff Hanger off a close sixth
in the Red Bank S. (G3) at Monmouth Park. He’s out of the unraced Mr. Prospector
mare Bless, a full sister to 2000 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner and $1.9-million
earner Fusaichi Pegasus, and this is the female family of 1992 Preakness (G1)
hero Pine Bluff (Danzig) and Grade 1 winner Demons Begone (Elocutionist). Brave
Tin Soldier has an unraced full sister named Blessed Catch, an unnamed yearling
full sister and a 2009 half-brother by A.P. Indy.