Chelsea Durand Photo

West Hollywood wins G3 Saranac

by NYRA Press Office

Qatar Racing’s West Hollywood crossed the finish line first under jockey Flavien Prat to win Friday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Saranac, a 1 1/16-mile turf route for sophomores, at Saratoga Race Course.

The Saranac saw the Tom Morley-trained The Big Torpedo lead the six-horse field through each point of call before he was met with a challenge to his outside from West Hollywood in the stretch of the firm Mellon turf course. The Big Torpedo dug in bravely under Eric Cancel, but sustained a catastrophic injury to his left front leg, leading to a spill that unseated Cancel and caused the fall of Take Me To Church and Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano as they attempted to advance along the inside.

Despite the immediate response of on-site veterinarians, The Big Torpedo was humanely euthanized due to the severity of the injury. Cancel walked off under his own power and attended first aid, where he was cleared of injury.

Castellano, who was awake, alert and moving all extremities, was transported to Albany Medical Center for further evaluation of an injury to his right wrist.

Take Me To Church briefly ran loose before being collared by the outrider and returned to his barn via the equine ambulance with minor abrasions.

West Hollywood made his stakes debut for dual Eclipse Award-winning conditioner Brad Cox off a local optional claiming win on July 27. He stalked the pace in last down the backstretch as The Big Torpedo marked splits of 24.73 seconds, 48.88 and 1:12.50 before West Hollywood was given his cue widest of all in the final turn to draw off down the center of the course and cross the wire first in a final time of 1:40.89. The Uncle Mo dark bay returned $4.70 on a $2 win wager as the 6-5 post-time favorite.

In victory, Prat now holds the record for most stakes wins by a jockey in a single Saratoga meet with 16, eclipsing the mark of 15 previously shared by Irad Ortiz, Jr. [2022] and Hall of Famers Joel Rosario [2022] and John Velazquez [2005] according to stats provided by Equibase. The win also provided Prat with his 12th graded stakes victory of the meet, equaling the record set by Rosario in 2022.

Prat could only extend his sympathies to the connections of The Big Torpedo.

“Well, I would definitely like to win under a different condition, and all my thoughts are for the connections, the riders, and obviously the horses as well,” said Prat. “I wish it would’ve been different. Our horse ran his race. He ran a good race. That’s all.”

Thomas Albrecht, Vincent Fusaro and James Klein’s The Big Torpedo was making his graded stakes debut for Morley off strong back-to-back victories in the New York Stallion Stakes Series, taking the Spectacular Bid division by 3 1/2 lengths in June at Belmont at the Big A and the Cab Calloway last out by 4 1/2 lengths on July 18 here. The son of Big Brown finished in the top three in 7-of-8 previous career starts.

West Hollywood was bred in Kentucky by B. Flay Thoroughbreds and is a half-brother to Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf-winner Pizza Bianca. He owns a 5-3-1-0 record with $251,794 in earnings after banking $96,250.

Live racing resumes Saturday at Saratoga with a 13-race card featuring the Grade 3, $200,000 Prioress in Race 10, the Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway in Race 11 and the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl in Race 12. First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern.