Zennor captures Fasig-Tipton Lure in stakes debut

by Michael Johnson

Godolphin's Zennor captured the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure in his stakes debut with a perfect stalking trip, kicking away from all competitors in the stretch to hit the wire to win by a length on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.

Trinity Farm's Macagone lead the field of 10 horses through honest fractions of 23:92 seconds, 47 seconds and 1:09:88, with jockey Joe Bravo sitting a few lengths back on Zennor and 3-2 favorite Projected just behind him. In the stretch, Zennor dug in and passed a fading Macagoneand held off Juddmonte Farm's Projected to win in a final time of 1:39:23 on the Mellon turf at Saratoga Race Course. 

"He's just really gotten good," said winning trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. "Joe Bravo has turned him around in my opinion. We got a little unlucky [in his last start], he got left at the gate and settled towards the back and won. Then today, he [Bravo] didn't think there was too much pace so he laid second and got the jump on everybody. He fits this horse very well and he deserves a lot of credit."

"I just try to stay out of this big gray horse's way," Bravo said. "Anything I ask him to do he does it with ease. The most impressive thing about the race is that he came back like he did nothing. He kicked off at the top of the lane, he kicked all the way throughout it, but I still had horse underneath me. As he gets better his confidence is getting better too. He really was push-button, putting me wherever I wanted to be. All I can say is Kiaran did all the work, he just made me look good out there."

Zennor, a 5-year-old Medaglia d'Oro gelding, broke his maiden at Saratoga in August 2015 and has now won three straight races with Bravo in the irons. McLaughlin said he will now look for a graded stakes race. 

"On paper, this was a Grade 2. We don't know how good he is. We'll maybe step up to a proper graded stakes next time, even though this was like a graded stakes.

"He [Zennor] used to work with Frosted and Imperia. He was actually the first runner for Godolphin as 2-year-old starter [in 2014] and he was way overbet because of it," McLaughlin said. 

Finishing second and third were Chad Brown trainees Projected and Takeover Target, respectively. 

"Takeover Target ran well off the layoff, but Projected was disappointing," Brown said. "I thought he had every chance to win, but he didn't get there, so I'm disappointed with his effort."

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, aboard runner-up Projected, said his mount didn't have his normal speed.  

"I tried to break and be right there, but I didn't have a lot of speed. The horse [Macagone] was rolling and I don't have that kind of speed to be right there you know. I tried to break running and get in a good spot, but it was very fast so I had to run in front another way. He gave me a little room at the end but they were pretty good horses," Castellano said. 

Zennor paid $30.60 on a $2 win ticket. The win was his fifth from 13 starts and pushed his career earnings to $280,816.

Finishing fourth was Fire Way, followed by Ring Weekend, Blacktype, Camelot Kitten, Our Way, Macagone, and Aubenas.  

Vorticity was scratched, as well as main track-only entrants Mohaymen and Red Rifle.