Richard T. Santulli’s homebred Force the Pass (Speightstown) arrived in the
nick of time to arrest Night Prowler (Giant’s Causeway) on the wire in Saturday
evening’s $500,000
Penn
Mile (G3) at Penn National. Patiently ridden by Joel Rosario, the 9-1 shot
speared through between horses in the final strides to earn his first black-type
victory.
The rousing late rally was set up by a quick early pace courtesy of longshots
Comanche’s Storm (Pollard’s Vision) and
Gallery (Munnings), who slugged it out
through fractions of :22 4/5, :46 2/5 and 1:10 1/5 on the firm turf. Night
Prowler was the first to challenge them, launching his bid on the far turn and
taking command at the top of the stretch.
Meanwhile, Force the Pass was angling out further back for running room. With
the field fanning out, he found a seam, and summoned the winning turn of foot.
The Alan Goldberg trainee just nabbed Night Prowler in a final time of 1:34 and
rewarded his backers with a $20 win mutuel.
“It looked like it was kind of tough for me the whole way,” Rosario said.
“Every time I tried to make a move, it was always somebody in the way, but he
got the job done. I was between horses the whole time. It’s not easy sometimes
when you have nowhere to go. But he responded and he’s a nice horse.”
Granny’s Kitten (Kitten’s Joy), who raced in tight on the inside for some
way, checked in third in a blanket finish, a neck up on fourth-placer Ocho Ocho
Ocho (Street Sense). Papacoolpapacool (Temple City), the 3-1 favorite, got off
to a slow start and was a belated seventh.
Force the Pass now sports a 5-3-2-0, $360,084, record, all compiled on turf.
Unraced at two, the chestnut was a closing second at Gulfstream Park before
breaking through over the same course and 7 1/2-furlong trip March 7. He added
Gulfstream’s April 1 Cutler Bay, a non-black-type event, by a neck. Dispatched
as the 2-1 favorite in the May 16 James W. Murphy S. at Pimlico, Force the Pass
finished an inconvenienced second to Woodwin W (More Than Ready). He gained
revenge at Penn National, where his rival trudged in 10th of 11.
“I watched it home on TV,” Goldberg said. “We thought highly of him from day
one. He ran hard in the Pimlico race and that was the first time he ever really
ran hard. The first time he ran, he had no idea what was going on. The second
time, he beat the field from the quarter-pole to the eighth-pole. And same with
the next race, that little stakes.
“He doesn’t train like he just wants to go a mile. He trains like he wants to
go all day. He’s kind of a big long horse with a big long stride.
“He got banged around the whole way.”
Goldberg indicated that the $1.25 million Belmont Derby Invitational (G1) on
July 4 could be next.
The Kentucky-bred Force the Pass was produced by multiple Grade 3 scorer
Social Queen (Dynaformer), a relative of $4.7 million-earner Perfect Drift (Dynaformer).
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