By: Blood Horse

Photo Credit: Eclipse Sportswire

Gear Jockey Takes Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs – BloodHorse

Calumet homebred prevails in rich six-furlong turf test, gets Breeders’ Cup spot.

Ever since he moved Calumet Farm’s Gear Jockey  to turf in the colt’s second start, trainer Rusty Arnold has seen great potential in homebred son of Twirling Candy  .

Trying him in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Presented by Coolmore America (G1T) at Santa Anita Park and getting a third-place finish at 67-1 odds speaks volumes of that confidence.

Yet with a mark of 2-2-4 after his first 12 starts, Arnold realized a change was needed.

“We always liked Gear Jockey,” Arnold said. “But he looked like he was going to win a few races and he didn’t. He wasn’t finishing his races like the way he was training for them. So I had a talk with (Calumet Farm general manager) Eddie Kane after he was third (May 1) against allowance horses at Churchill Downs, and we decided to sprint him and let’s see what happens.”

What happened, in a nutshell, is that Gear Jockey is heading back to California for the Breeders’ Cup.

Facing a stellar lineup of 11 rivals, Gear Jockey turned what loomed as a highly competitive race into a decisive 2 1/2-length victory over Diamond Oops  in the $995,500 FanDuel Turf Sprint Stakes (G3T) Sept. 11 at Kentucky Downs, setting a course record of 1:07.90. With the six-furlong turf stakes being part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the “Win and You’re In” qualifier netted Gear Jockey a paid, automatic berth in the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Del Mar for his initial stakes win.

“Things went the right way for him today. It was a huge effort. I’m proud of the way he showed up and today was the right day to show up,” Arnold said about the $902,875 earner. “Sometimes these things work out and sometimes they don’t. This time it did.”

Arnold’s first try with sprinting Gear Jockey resulted in an allowance optional claimer win at Saratoga Race Course, and in his next and most recent start, the 4-year-old was third in the Aug. 6 Troy Stakes Presented by Horse Racing Ireland (G3T) after a slow start and wide trip.

After running in those two races and the Turf Sprint since July 17, Arnold said his charge would not race again until the Breeders’ Cup.

As competitive as Saturday’s race seemed on paper and on the toteboard, with grade 1 winners Got Stormy  and Casa Creed  in the field, it was not for the top position.

Bombard  set the early pace with Gear Jockey chasing a half-length behind in second after a quarter-mile in :22.38 on the firm turf. Turning into the stretch, Jose Lezcano and Gear Jockey motored past Bombard and opened a two-length lead at the eighth pole. Though there was a line of horses behind the 5-1 fourth choice ($13.40), no one mounted a rally to endanger him.

Diamond Oops moved up from third at the half-mile pole to take second by a nose over the Richard Mandella-trained Bombard, one of six horses separated by no more than a neck at the wire.

Casa Creed was fifth while Got Stormy, the $2.3 million-earning mare coming off a win against males in the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T), was a neck behind him in sixth as the 7-2 favorite.

Gear Jockey is the fourth of seven foals from the Tapit   mare Switching Gears and her first stakes winner. She also has three younger unraced colts, the 3-year-old Skipping Gears (Skipshot  ), 2-year-old Double Clutch  (Optimizer  ), and yearling Keen to Go (Keen Ice  ).

“The depth of this field was unbelievable,” Arnold said. “It’s hard to believe he won the way he did, but he did. He has thrived at sprinting. You wish you had done it earlier, but it’s never too late.”

Better late than never? That certainly applies when talking about the turf-sprinting—and now Breeders’ Cup-bound—Gear Jockey.