Imperia breaks maiden in Pilgrim

Imperia breaks maiden in Pilgrim

Pilgrim added Lasix and broke his maiden in the Pilgrim in his second start (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Godolphin Racing LLC’s Imperia took down graded stakes competition in his second start in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Pilgrim Stakes for two-year-olds at Belmont, despite losing his racing bow last month.  “We’ve only (run a maiden in a graded stakes) one other time that I can remember in the last 10 years, and it was Soldat (when he won the 2010 Grade 2 With Anticipation),” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin stated. “You have to get graded earnings to get into the Breeders’ Cup. We really liked him and thought, ‘Why run him back in a maiden race? We can always break our maiden. Let’s run in a stakes.’ He had bled a little in his first start, so we signed him up for Lasix. I feel bad Rajiv (Maragh) is in the hospital, but Javier (Castellano) was a great replacement.” Imperia ran in midpack along the rail while Vision Perfect led the field through fractions of :25, :48 4/5 and 1:12 2/5.

Imperia angled his way out from the rail on the far turn and swung out wider
in the upper stretch to find room to run. Vision Perfect continued to hold the
lead on the front, but once Imperia had space he mounted a charge in the stretch
and flew past in the final yards to prevail by a length.

“I got lucky today with the way everything unfolded,” jockey Javier
Castellano said. “I didn’t have a horse in the race, and Kiaran asked me to ride
him this morning. I had a beautiful trip. He broke well, much better than last
time. He put me in good position early, and I got to save all the ground. I had
the best horse in the race, I just had to go around the horses and he took off;
I like the way he did it at the top of the stretch. For a young horse, he has a
very mature mind.”

Imperia crossed the wire in 1:41 1/5 for the 1 1/16-mile test over the firm
turf as the 5-1 third choice, and paid $13 for the score.

Vision Perfect took runner-up and was one-length clear of third-place
finisher Offering Plan. Startup Nation, the 2-5 favorite, rallied to get up for
fourth. Face the Music, Strong Coffee, All I Karabout, Nutty Futty and Artie’s
Flight rounded out the order of finish.

“We saw him work a little better (on the turf),” McLaughlin said. “He’s
pretty good on the dirt, also, but he wants the distance, so we ran him long on
the turf at Saratoga. We’re not saying we’ll never go back to dirt, but we
could.”

Imperia missed by a neck in his first career start at this distance on August
23.

The son of Medaglia d’Oro banked $120,000 for his first career win and has
$139,600 in his bank account from two starts.

Bred in Kentucky by Darley, Imperia is out of the Chilean
Horse of the Year and multiple Grade 1 winning Doneraile Court mare Cocoa Beach,
who is a half-sister to Argentinean Group 3 scorer Via Los Andres. The dark
bay’s female family also includes Chilean Group 1 winner Poseida and Chilean
turf champion Campo Marzio. 

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