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Sacred Life gets up in the nick of time in G3 Knickerbocker

by Ryan Martin

Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables and Michael J. Caruso’s Sacred Life captured his first graded stakes win in North America, displaying a devastating turn-of-foot in the final furlong to collar pacesetter Field Pass in the last jump in the 60th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Knickerbocker going nine furlongs over the inner turf at Belmont Park.

Sacred Life, a 6-year-old ridgling son of Siyouni, entered the Knickerbocker with an 0-for-4 record in 2021, including a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile in April at Keeneland, followed by a pair of fourth-place efforts at graded stakes level.

Six weeks after making up nearly ten lengths to finish a close second to fellow Knickerbocker aspirant Breaking the Rules in a one-mile allowance optional claimer at Saratoga, Sacred Life found a winning late stride to capture a breakthrough graded stakes victory.

Breaking from post 3, Jose Ortiz took Sacred Life toward the rear of the field as Field Pass commanded an opening quarter-mile in 23.83 seconds over the firm footing with 24-1 longshot Epic Bromance one length back in second.

Field Pass widened his advantage to 2 ½ lengths through a half-mile in 48.32 as Temple inched his way into contention from third toward the rail as Ortiz made up ground aboard Sacred Life, following graded stakes-placed Breaking the Rules to his inside.

Past the quarter-pole, Field Pass was still in charge as Temple put in a menacing run to his outside in second. Fifth at the stretch call, Sacred Life made up considerable ground in the last eighth of a mile and got up in the last jump to win by a head in a final time of 1:46.66. Temple held off a late rally from Corelli to finish third.

No Word, Breaking the Rules, L’Imperator, En Wye Cee and Epic Bromance completed the order of finish.

Ortiz said he kept a close eye on the Joel Rosario-piloted Breaking the Rules nearing the far turn and pushed the ‘go’ button once his rival started moving.

“He has no speed early on and I had to ride him from early,” Ortiz said. “At the six furlongs, I started pushing on him and he was coming little by little. I knew sooner or later he would pick it up and he picked up nicely around the half-mile and then I just wanted for Rosario to go and I followed him.

“I had a lot of room to work with so I decided to do it,” Ortiz added. “He was flying late. I just had to keep him straight.”

The victory gave trainer Chad Brown his second straight Knickerbocker win after saddling Devamani to a score in last year’s edition.

“He’s trained well. He's an honest horse. It just hasn’t worked out for him in some of his races and he clicked with Jose today and got a great trip,” said Brown’s Belmont assistant Dan Stupp, who saddled Royal Flag to victory in the Grade 2 Beldame two races before. “He got some pace to run into and made a late run and was able to get up at the wire. It was an exciting finish. It looked a little more fun for Jose than it did for me.”

Dylan Davis, aboard Field Pass, said he tried to get the jump in the late running.

“I knew there was a lot of deep closers, so I made a pretty quick move there into the turn and I started letting him get running into the quarter pole,” Davis said. “I didn't want to wait for those closers and he made a nice run, unfortunately we got caught the last two jumps. He ran great and very hard it’s just unfortunate you're able to lose like that.”

Returning $12.80 for a $2 win wager, Sacred Life banked $82,500 in victory and brought his lifetime earnings up to $616,768 through a 21-7-7-1 record. He has never finished worse than fourth, including his first nine starts in his native France, where he was a Group 3 winner during his juvenile campaign. 

Live racing returns Thursday at Belmont Park with a nine-race card. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

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