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Drew’s Gold shines bright in $150K Gold Fever

by Ryan Martin

Undefeated Drew’s Gold continued to prove that he does not need to take his racetrack with him, securing his fourth triumph over as many racetracks in Friday’s $150,000 Gold Fever for sophomores going six furlongs at Belmont Park.

Owned by Stuart Tsujimoto and trainer James Chapman, Drew’s Gold was last seen capturing his stakes debut in the six-furlong Jimmy Winkfield on February 11 at Aqueduct Racetrack. He exited the Winkfield score with a virus and subsequently missed the Grade 3 Bay Shore on April 8 at the Ozone Park oval.

The dark bay or brown Violence colt previously won on debut last May at Churchill Downs before defeating winners in his sophomore debut on January 28 at Laurel Park.

Breaking from the outermost post 5 under Jose Gomez, Drew’s Gold dueled to the outside of graded stakes-placed Andiamo a Firenze down the backstretch through an opening quarter-mile in 22.15 seconds over the fast main track with 4-5 favorite Squire Creek tracking their early foot a close third.

As the field reached the far turn through a half in 45.06, Florent Geroux began to call on Squire Creek while Drew’s Gold established a clear lead under little urging from Gomez. In upper stretch, Gomez tapped his charge on the right shoulder a few times and he began to find his best stride as Andiamo a Firenze retreated and Squire Creek launched a rally nearing the three-sixteenths pole. Squire Creek looked poised for a big run in mid-stretch, but Drew’s Gold continued to find more and strolled home a 4 3/4-length winner in a final time of 1:09.36.

Squire Creek finished second another 1 1/2 lengths ahead of last out Bay Shore winner Joey Freshwater. Tuskegee Airman and Andiamo a Firenze completed the order of finish. Drew’s Gold’s stablemate Prove Right was scratched and will now target the Grade 3 Chick Lang on May 20 at Pimlico Race Course, according to Chapman.

Gomez, the pilot in Drew's Gold's last two starts, expressed his appreciation for riding such a consistent horse.

“I’ve been working this horse since before he ran and I had really high expectations for him,” Gomez said. “I just love him. He's undefeated and he's a great horse. He loves the competition. In the morning, he works a lot better in company. When he works solo, he just goes through the motions. But once he has a target, he's a whole different horse - he gets aggressive and he loves the chase.”

Chapman said he was not surprised with his horse’s impressive effort.

“Not to sound arrogant, but that’s what we expected to see. He’s a whole different deal. He’s had little issues and he’s run with them and now he doesn’t have them anymore,” Chapman said. “A normal horse would have needed this race, but he didn’t. They’re going to have to run next time [to beat him]. He’s like riding a pleasure horse. He does whatever you ask him to do. To train him is the easiest thing in the world.”

Chapman added that Drew’s Gold will now target the seven-furlong Grade 1, $400,000 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun as part of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival on June 10.

The well-traveled Drew’s Gold returned $9.20 for a $2 win bet. He banked $82,500 in victory which enhanced his lifetime earnings to $222,620. Bred in Kentucky by Woodford Thoroughbreds, Drew’s Gold is out of the dual surface stakes-winning Vindication mare Frolic’s Revenge. He was obtained for $25,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Geroux was gallant in defeat aboard Squire Creek, who was handed his first loss in three career starts for trainer Brad Cox. The son of Uncle Mo entered off two gate-to-wire triumphs going six furlongs at Fair Grounds Race Course and Keeneland, respectively.

“It was my horse's first time running here. I thought he handled everything great,” Geroux said. “He broke well and I tried to go for it for a bit. I was out front with them for the first eighth of a mile and then I decided to follow the winner from there. I tried to take a swing at [Drew's Gold] at the quarter-pole, but he was too strong for me today.”

The Gold Fever honors Cynthia Phipps’ three-time graded stakes winner who captured the Grade 1 NYRA Mile Handicap in his career finale for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. As a stallion, the son of Forty Niner produced 2005 Canadian Horse of the Year A Bit O’ Gold and six-time graded stakes winning millionaire Gold Mover.

Live racing returns on Saturday at Belmont with an 11-race card, headlined by the Grade 1, $600,000 Man o’ War [Race 5; 3:07 p.m. Eastern], the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan [Race 6; 3:40 p.m.] and the Grade 3, $175,000 Runhappy [Race 9; 5:18 p.m.]. First post is 1:00 p.m. 

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule/.