Caledonian wins stakes debut in Lost in the Fog

by Brian Bohl

Curragh Stables' Caledonian overtook Always a Suspect in deep stretch to win his stakes debut by a neck in the $100,000 Lost in the Fog for newly turned 3-year-olds on Sunday in the first stakes race of the year at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Mabrouk set the early fraction of 24.05 seconds for a quarter-mile and Always a Suspect went to the front, going a half-mile in 47.71. The post-time favorite maintained the lead entering the stretch before jockey Eric Cancel piloted Caledonian three-wide  heading into the upper stretch and rallied to take the lead in the final furlong, completing six furlongs in 1:12.08.

"I just wanted to stay close to the two horses on the lead," Cancel said. "My plan was to get close to them and not be too far out of it, so when he kicked, I had a good shot to get there in time. It took him a little bit of time to get there, but he did. It worked out. He was prepared. He's been training good. I had no doubt he had a chance to win."

Off at 3-1, Caledonian paid $8.50 on a $2 win wager and almost tripled his career earnings, improving to $96,565. The John Terranova trainee improved to 2-1-0 in four career starts, winning for the second time in his last three races.

"I was going to run him in a starter this week, but I don't know if it was going to go or not, because he still had that condition," Terranova said. "Now he's wiped that one out, so now we're stuck in stakes, but there could be a lot worse things. I'm happy to be competitive here and can win these races this time of year. We'll just see how he improves. There's a chance [he could run in the $125,000 Rego Park on January 21]. We'll just see how he is."

Always a Suspect, for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, held on for second.

Butch Walker, Cape Lookout and Mabrouk completed the order of finish.