Comma to the Top fights to the finish in Tom Fool

Comma to the Top got back to his winning ways in the Tom Fool (Photo courtesy NYRA via Twitter) Gary Barber’s Comma to the Top wouldn’t give in at Aqueduct on Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap. The Peter Miller trainee lost the lead briefly in the stretch but fought back on the inside all the way to the wire, emerging by a nose over Saturday’s Charm in the photo finish. Comma to the Top shipped in from California after a third-place finish in the Grade 2 San Carlos just last week. “The horse performed pretty well last time (in the San Carlos a week ago at Santa Anita), so we took a shot, considering the horse came out of it very good,” said Martin Contreras, assistant to Miller. “This guy is a tough fighter, and when he’s in his right moment he fights pretty tough. We got lots of luck (on the photo finish). Thank God on that one!” Comma to the Top broke sharply, went right to the front and posted fractions of :22 4/5 and :46 1/5. Coming around the far turn, the five-year-old gelding battled with Head Heart Hoof, who drew even in the stretch. At the sixteenth-pole, Comma to the Top looked like he might be finished as Saturday’s Charm came flying on the outside to grab the lead but Comma to the Top would not be denied in the end. The photo showed Saturday’s Charm was a nose second while another length back in third was Head Heart Hoof. Consortium, Smash, Be Bullish, Johannesburg Smile, St Liams Halo, Heart Butte and Off the Jak rounded out the order of finish.

Comma to the Top stopped the clock in 1:10 1/5 for the six-furlong dash over
the fast track with Joel Rosario in the irons. The 2-1 favorite returned $6.30,
$4.30 and $3.40 to his backers.

“He tries hard, this horse,” Rosario said. “To come in here and show up like
that, he’s something special. He hung on there and kept going. I didn’t know
whether I had won, it was tough. I’m glad for the horse he won.”

With this seventh career stakes score to his credit, Comma to the Top now
boasts $1,180,696 in earnings from his 28-12-2-2 line. The bay earned three
stakes victories as a juvenile in 2010 — the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity, Grade 3
Generous and Real Quiet.

A gallant runner-up in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in 2011, Comma to the
Top took a swing at the Kentucky Derby, but trailed home last and exited the
race with an ankle injury that required surgery. He returned to action in the
fall of 2011, but won only one of three starts.

Sidelined until last summer, Comma to the Top made a winning four-year-old
debut in a turf sprint allowance at Golden Gate Fields, and followed up with a
third in the Robert K. Kerlan Memorial at Hollywood Park. He has since added
stakes wins in the Pirate’s Bounty over Del Mar’s Polytrack, the Big Bear
Handicap and the Grade 3 Daytona at Santa Anita, along with fourths in the Grade
1 Bing Crosby, Grade 3 Eddie D., Grade 3 Vernon O. Underwood and Grade 2 Palos
Verdes.

Comma to the Top was bred by Richard and Linda Thompson in Florida, and first
sold for just $5,000 as an OBS October weanling. At the same venue as a
two-year-old in training in April 2010, the bay was purchased by Miller for
$22,000.

The son of Bwana Charlie was produced by the Stormy Atlantic mare Maggies
Storm, who is herself a half-sister to stakes winner Yes He’s a Pistol. Comma to
the Top’s second dam is Grade 3 victress Maggies Pistol.

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