Chelsea Durand Photo

Madefromlucky goes the distance to win Temperence Hill Invitational

by Brian Bohl

Cheyenne Stables and Mac Nichol's Madefromlucky ran down Turco Bravo in deep stretch and outkicked his rival by three-quarters of a length to win the fourth running of the $200,000 Temperence Hill Invitational Sunday at Belmont Park.

Madefromlucky stayed off Let Me Go First's early fractions of 25 seconds flat for a quarter-mile with the half going in 49.68 and the mile in 1:39.69. Turco Bravo challenged at the quarter-pole and gained in the stretch. But Madefromlucky, under Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, surged from the outside to gain the lead in the final furlong, completing 1 5/8 miles in 2:44.88.

"He surprised me. He never takes me on the bridle," Castellano said. "I always have to ride him basically all the way on the backside. I guess because he was in between horses he wasn't too brave, and I'm lucky they moved kind of early a little bit by the three-eighths pole, and when they moved, I couldn't keep up with the pace.

"I took my time, and I put him outside when I saw it was clear, and no horses around, he just took off again, I think the key with him he just wants to be in the clear, and then you make your run."

The win was the second straight for Madefromlucky, who bested Temperence Hill adversaries Testosterstone and Let Me Go First with a 12 ¼-length score in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup on September 4 at Parx Racing.

Off as the 1-2 favorite, Madefromlucky paid $3 on a $2 win bet. The 5-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky improved his career earnings to $1,351,500.

"I was a little concerned he wasn't really dragging Javier anywhere along the way like he did last time at Parx, but he was kind of in between horses," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "When Javier finally had the opportunity to get out and around he reengaged himself and came with a good run down the lane to get there. We were kind of looking to see what his specialty might be and it kind of looks like these distances suit him. We only tried it one time before previously in the Belmont so it took a while to get back to it, but he seems to enjoy it."

Turco Bravo, the 8-year-old Chilean bred for trainer David Cannizzo, recorded his best finish in nine starts this year, finishing three-quarters of a length ahead of Archanova for second.

Let Me Go First, Testosterstone and Scuba completed the order of finish