Twilight Eclipse leads all the way in off-the-turf McKnight

Twilight Eclipse dominated on the front end (Coady Photography) West Point Thoroughbreds’ Twilight Eclipse took the lead leaving the starting gate and cruised through tepid fractions in Saturday’s $125,000 W.L. McKnight H., posting an easy victory in the 1 1/2-mile, off-the-turf race at Calder. Now a three-time stakes winner, the four-year-old gelding also captured last year’s McKnight on turf. Jose Lezcano was up for trainer Tom Albertrani. As a result of the surface switch, the McKnight was downgraded from Grade 3 to listed status pending a review from the American Graded Stakes Committee. Twilight Eclipse broke alertly from post 7 and had opened a two-length cushion after an opening quarter-mile in :26 2/5. He continued to run unopposed through glacial splits of :53 3/5, 1:19 4/5 and 1:45 4/5 for a mile.

Dannhauser, who stalked the early pace in second, attempted to challenge the
pacesetter nearing the completion of the far turn, but Lezcano asked his mount
for run after turning for home and Twilight Eclipse quickly erased any doubt,
widening the advantage through the stretch drive.

“I think he was the best horse in the race,” Lezcano said. “He broke good; I
let him do his thing the comfortable way. When I asked him he still had plenty
in the tank.”

The odds-on favorite strolled under the finish line seven lengths clear,
completing 12 furlongs in 2:35 3/5 on the drying-out fast track.

“Things worked out today,” co-owner Tom Bellhouse said. “We thought all along
that he would adapt to the dirt. He trains like a monster on the dirt, but you
don’t know until you actually run in the race.”

Twilight Eclipse could remain on dirt following Saturday’s tour-de-force (Coady Photography) Twilight Eclipse, who was making his second career dirt start, paid $3 to win as the 1-2 choice among eight contestants. Dannhauser easily took second at 15-1 odds, nearly five lengths better than Flatter This, who wound up a neck better than Ducduc in fourth. Next came Ocean Seven, Twin, Suntracer and Hariolus. Franklinpark, Mucho Mas Macho, Slumber and Vertiformer were all scratched. Twilight Eclipse captured his first two career starts on the turf at Indiana Downs in June 2012, taking a maiden special weight and an entry-level allowance, before recording a pair of unplaced efforts against stakes rivals at Saratoga and Delaware Park. After a third in the Temperence Hill at Belmont Park, he earned his first stakes tally in the McKnight.

The bay son of Purim opened 2013 with a fourth in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida
and then established a new world record with a four-length triumph in the Grade
2 Pan American, completing 1 1/2 miles in 2:22.63 on the turf at Gulfstream Park.

Twilight Eclipse
posted a pair of Grade 1 runner-up finishes over the summer in the Man o’ War
and Sword Dancer, and finished sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita
prior to snapping a five-race losing skein on Saturday.

With the $75,175 payday, he’s now earned $592,786 from a 14-5-2-1 record.

“He ran up at Belmont once on the dirt (in the Temperence Hill) and it was a
little green, but today to see this type of performance, it gets us excited for
the future,” Bellhouse said. “We came from the Breeders’ Cup and gave him a
little extra time off. Then to run like this and win back-to-back McKnights is
just a thrill for the partners.”

Bred in Kentucky by Epona Thoroughbreds, Twilight Eclipse sold for $1,000 at
the 2010 Keeneland January sale. He is out of the Twilight Agenda mare My
Twilight Dancer, which makes him a half-brother to Grand Contender, winner of
the Delta Mile Stakes on November 23. This is also the female family of Grade 2
hero and multiple Grade 1-placed Slavic.

Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com