David vs. Goliath. Phil Schoenthal vs. Todd Pletcher. D Hatman Thoroughbreds vs. Gainesway. Sheldon Russell vs. Javier Castellano.
Goliath won this time.
Pletcher’s Blind Ambition passed Schoenthal’s Expedited Vision 50 yards before the wire to win Wednesday’s running of the $100,000 Quick Call Stakes.
“You can’t let me have a stakes one time Todd?” Schoenthal said to Pletcher while the losing trainer was on the ground looking through the railing up the clubhouse steps at the winning trainer.
A day after Gainesway sold Hip 186, a homebred colt by Orb for $1 million across the street at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings, they won Wednesday’s feature with a homebred son of their flag-bearing stallion, Tapit.
“Homebred that we couldn’t sell,” Gainesway Director of Sales Michael Hernon said of the winner while moving to the winner’s circle from his spot behind Schoenthal at a TV on the floor of the clubhouse. “He’s done well, his mother could really run on the turf, Todd had her. This horse is a lot of speed and this is home, racing on turf.”
Gainesway General Manager Neil Howard watched with Hernon at the same TV in the clubhouse. The pair couldn’t celebrate until their runner took the lead in deep stretch.
To read the rest of the Quick Call recap, download Thursday’s digital edition of The Saratoga Special.
