Solid, not spectacular, is how you would describe Lookin At Lucky’s racing performances prior to yesterday’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park.
Last year, trainer Bob Baffert’s handsome bay colt won five of six starts to earn the 2-year-old championship, and this spring he won the Rebel and Preakness.
But Lookin At Lucky’s biggest winning margin in those seven victories was 1 ¾ lengths. The other six wins came by a length or less.
That streak of just good enough came to a sudden, dramatic end yesterday on the Jersey Shore when Lookin At Lucky surged to the lead around the far turn of the Haskell, then kicked on the after-burners to draw away through the stretch, beating the late-blooming Trappe Shot by four lengths in 1:49 4/5 for the mile-and-an-eighth.
“That was really a break-out race,” said Baffert, who notched his record fourth Haskell after winning previously with Point Given, War Emblem and Roman Ruler. “He finally came out of his shell.”
First Dude, runner-up in the Preakness and third in the Belmont Stakes, was third, with Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver fourth in the field of seven.
First Dude set the pace, pressed by Our Dark Knight through splits of :23 2/5 and :47 4/5, with Super Saver sitting outside them in third and Lookin At Lucky stalking a few lengths back. Leaving the backside, Garcia asked Lookin At Lucky to go after the leaders, and when he did, Super Saver and Calvin Borel moved in tandem.
For several strides around the far turn, the Derby and Preakness winners were neck-and-neck, and it seemed as if an epic battle might be in the making. But then Lookin At Lucky took command.
“I was really confident when [Garcia] got him outside and let him settle into his rhythm,” Baffert said. “At the three-eighths pole, when a horse starts dragging you there, he’s ready to put them away. When I saw that move on the far turn, I knew it was over.”
Lookin At Lucky, surprisingly the heavy favorite in a field Baffert called the toughest he ever faced in the Haskell, paid $4.40 to win, topping a $17.20 exacta.
The big question now is, will Lookin At Lucky — who finished sixth after a nightmare trip in the Kentucky Derby, his only start at a mile-and-a-quarter — now try to win the “Midsummer Derby,” the $1 million Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 28 — a race Baffert previously won with Point Given en route to Horse of the Year?
“I don’t know yet about the Travers,” Baffert said. “We’ll decide whether he stays east and goes to Saratoga, or we bring him back west. Right now I’m not sure.”
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A dream went up in smoke before the race when Fantasy Lane Stable’s Uptowncharlybrown was scratched after he spiked a fever just before getting on a van at Belmont Park.
“The timing was terrible,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “It’s unfortunate for the owners, another bit of bad luck for this horse.”
Winning the Haskell with Uptowncharlybrown had long been the main goal of Fantasy Lane and their original trainer, Monmouth-based Alan Seewald, who died in April.
