After taking a narrow lead on the far turn, Elisabeth H. Alexander’s MAGNA
GRADUATE (Honor Grades) hooked up with Suave (A.P. Indy) for a thrilling stretch
run in Friday’s $573,500
Clark H. (G2) and eventually prevailed by a head at the
wire. In his first test against older horses, the three-year-old colt delivered
his best career performance and notched his third consecutive stakes win.
Thoroughbred racing’s newest millionaire also provided his white-hot
connections, trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez, with another
stakes win on Churchill Downs’ closing weekend, following their success in
Thursday’s Falls City H. (G2) at Churchill Downs.
Sent off the 4-1 third choice in the field of 12, Magna Graduate pressed
pacesetter Go Now (Go for Gin) through moderate early fractions of :24 1/5 and
:48 2/5 while well off the rail and in hand. The dark bay colt easily took the
lead on the final bend, getting six furlongs in 1:12 2/5, but Suave was moving
boldly and appeared to get a head in front with a quarter-mile left to run.
Magna Graduate responded to the challenge in game fashion, re-rallying to a
narrow advantage and finishing the 1 1/8-mile event in 1:50 4/5 over the fast
track.
The winner paid $10, $5.20 and $3.40 and keyed the $39 exacta with Suave, who
was off as the 2-1 favorite and gave back $4.20 and $2.80. Perfect Drift
(Dynaformer), the 3-1 second choice, offered a run from far off the pace to
reach contention in midstretch but could not threaten the top pair, finishing
another four lengths behind the runner-up and was good for $2.40. It was another
neck back to 20-1 Andromeda’s Hero (Fusaichi Pegasus) in fourth. The trifecta
totaled $94.80, and the 5-7-3-11 superfecta ($1) returned $431.10.
Rounding out the order of finish were M B Sea (Alphabet Soup), A.P. Arrow
(A.P. Indy), Purim (Dynaformer), Alumni Hall (A.P. Indy), Go Now, Total Impact
(Chi) (Stuka), Chippewa Trail (General Royal) and Stolen Time (Time Bandit).
Bred in Kentucky by Nicole Zitani and Ramon Rangel, Magna Graduate commanded
only $30,000 as a 2003 Keeneland September yearling and has rewarded his
connections handsomely with earnings of $1,147,002 from a 15-6-3-3 line. He
earned his first stakes win in March’s John Battaglia Memorial S. and entered
the Clark off recent wins in the Discovery H. (G3) and Pegasus S. (G3). The
sophomore also owns runner-up finishes in the West Virginia Derby (G2) and Ohio
Derby (G2) this season.
Magna Graduate hails from the unraced Fast Play mare Peacock Alley, who is
also the dam of an unraced juvenile filly named Jadie Bug (Meadowlake), a
yearling colt by Brahms and a weanling filly by Holy Bull.