Ticket gets Golden set-up in Left Bank

Golden Ticket (left) swept from last to deny Pants on Fire (center) and Integrity in his prep for the BC Dirt Mile (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography/Chelsea Durand) Magic City Thoroughbred Partners’ Golden Ticket capitalized on a testing pace scenario to rally from last in Friday’s $98,000 Left Bank, the feature on opening day of Belmont Park‘s fall championship meet. Patiently handled by Joel Rosario, the 5-2 second choice wore down 7-5 favorite Pants on Fire and pacesetter Integrity in deep stretch and thereby snapped a losing streak dating back to last summer. Golden Ticket is best known for his historic dead-heat with Alpha in the 2012 Travers, and both winners of that “Midsummer Derby” renewed rivalry in the Left Bank. Each was also coming off disappointing efforts at the Spa. Alpha was a tired third off a six-month layoff in the August 17 Alydar, and Golden Ticket trailed home last in the August 2 Whitney. While Alpha failed to improve in this second start back, Golden Ticket rebounded to deliver one of his best performances for trainer Ken McPeek. Integrity zipped to the front and rattled off splits of :23, :45 2/5 and 1:09 3/5 on the fast track. Pants on Fire was poised to pounce right off his flank, with Alpha parked in a ground-saving third and Stormin Monarcho also chasing. Golden Ticket, allowed to drop well off the pace, raced in an isolated last early, but began to erase the deficit markedly rounding the far turn. As Integrity knuckled in down the stretch and gamely tried to fend off Pants on Fire, Golden Ticket loomed ever more menacingly wider out. Staying on best of all in the final strides, the five-year-old son of Speightstown forced his neck in front in a final time of 1:35 for the mile.

“Last time (in the Whitney) I think we made a mistake trying to chase
(front-running winner) Moreno,” McPeek said. “I was a little worried that he was
too far back (here), but (Rosario) knows the horse, and every time he has ridden
him he has run really well.”

Rosario was confident that he had found the key to Golden Ticket, whom he
last rode to a second-place finish in the May 2 Alysheba at Churchill Downs.

“(McPeek) asked me, ‘You want instructions?’ I said, ‘No, I rode him before.
I don’t need instructions,'” Rosario recounted. “I thought there was a little
bit of speed. He broke well; I let him come with a big run, because that’s the
way he likes to run. I was very happy with his performance.”

Pants on Fire nosed out Integrity on the wire, and Stormin Monarcho was
another three-quarters of a length away in fourth. Alpha retreated to last, a
further 6 3/4 lengths adrift. Pass the Dice was scratched.

Golden Ticket paid $7.30 to win after notching his first victory since the
Prairie Meadows Handicap in July 2013. Since then, he has turned in some useful
efforts, including a second to Goldencents in last November’s
Breeders’ Cup Dirt
Mile; a near-miss to Palace Malice in the March 8 Gulfstream Park Handicap; and
another close runner-up performance to Moonshine Mullin in the aforementioned Alysheba. His resume now reads 28-6-8-3, $1,329,090, which also reflects
placings in the 2012 Tampa Bay Derby and Pennsylvania Derby as well as the 2013
Mineshaft and Stephen Foster Handicaps.

“A Speightstown colt out of a Deputy Minister mare — I think (one mile) is
his best distance,” McPeek offered. “It’s tricky — it’s hard to find. We
actually had the choice of running in the Ack Ack Handicap tomorrow at Churchill
or here (in the Left Bank). Being that this a restricted race (for horses who
have not won a graded stakes in 2014), we thought it’d be a bit easier, but
there were bears in here.”

“This horse — this was his 28th start — he’s just hickory. Next start will
be the Breeders’ Cup (Dirt) Mile (at Santa Anita), and then I think we’ll call
it a career.”

Bred by WinStar Farm
in Kentucky, Golden Ticket was sold for $100,000 as a two-year-old in training
at Keeneland April.
He is out of Business Plan, herself a full sister to multiple Emirates
stakes-placed Dubai World. The mare’s half-siblings include stakes scorer Grand
Royale and the unraced Magical Mood, dam of Grade 2 vixen Magical Feeling. This
is the productive family of Irish highweight Tomahawk and Grade 1 star Well
Chosen, who is responsible for two-time Sword Dancer Invitational hero Telling.

With Deputy Minister as his broodmare sire, Golden Ticket has a prominent
genetic link with the race’s namesake. Left Bank, the ill-fated champion older
male of 2002, was by the Deputy Minister stallion French Deputy.

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