Todd Pletcher surpassed his mentor, D. Wayne Lukas, on the all-time earnings
list among North American trainers when Jack Milton rallied from off a hot pace
to take the Grade 3, $300,000
Poker
at Belmont Park on Memorial Day.
As of late Monday afternoon, Pletcher-trained horses had earned $268,512,294
compared with Lukas’ monetary tally of $268,467,262. Pletcher, who turns 47 on
June 26, has won six Eclipse Awards as top trainer, trained nine individual
champions and won three classics.
The early trailer in the field of six, Jack Milton improved his position at
each call as Peace and Justice burst out to a long lead through splits of :22
2/5, :45 2/5 and 1:09 3/5. Out of gas by the stretch, the long-time leader
yielded to Jack Milton, who made a sweeping five-wide rally and drew off to win
convincingly by 2 3/4 lengths under Javier Castellano.
Owned by Gary Barber, Jack Milton paid $7.70 to win after completing a mile
on the firm Widener turf in 1:33.
Big Screen, a 14-1 outsider who had ran third in the 2013 Poker was for
second, two lengths clear of 4-5 favorite Za Approval. Plainview, Sinatra, and
Peace and Justice completed the order of finish. Bio Pro, the original entrymate
of Jack Milton, was scratched after winning an allowance at Belmont on Saturday.
This was the second Grade 3 score for Jack Milton, who also captured the
Transylvania at Keeneland in April 2013 after winning on debut at Gulfstream
three months earlier. In between the two victories was a runner-up effort
against allowance foes at Gulfstream.
After the Transylvania, Jack Milton finished third in four consecutive stakes
— Penn Mile, Virginia Derby, Secretariat, and Jamaica Handicap — before
completing his sophomore campaign with a sixth in the Hollywood Derby. He
returned to action May 1, where he beat second-level allowance company at
Churchill Downs by three lengths going a mile. His record now stands at
10-4-1-4, $505,900.
Bred by Cherry Valley Farm in Kentucky, Jack Milton was sold for $100,000 as
a Keeneland September yearling, but RNA’d for $190,000 as an OBS March
two-year-old. The dark bay is out of the Forty Niner mare Preserver, who is
responsible for four other stakes performers — Grade 3 winner Peace Preserver,
the Grade 3-placed duo of My Rachel and Stake, and the stakes-placed Dig Alittle
Deeper.
This is the family of champion and ill-fated sire War Pass; Grade 1 heroines
Karlovy Vary and Oath; multiple Grade 2 scorer Great Intentions; and Grade 3
winners Country Light and Honest Man.
Jack Milton’s fifth dam is Bayou, the champion three-year-old filly of 1957
and ancestress of two-time champion Slew o’ Gold, 1979 Belmont Stakes upsetter
Coastal and multiple Grade 1 winner Aptitude, among others. Bayou was a full
sister to Broodmare of the Year Levee, most famously the dam of Hall of Famer
Shuvee.
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