Samraat fights to win Gotham Stakes

Ozone Park, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Post-time favorite Samraat fought through the stretch versus a pair of rivals and came out on top in winning Saturday’s $500,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.

The 1 1/16-mile stakes is the final local prep event for the $1 million Wood Memorial on April 5.

Trained by Richard Violette and ridden by Jose Ortiz, Samraat went off as the 2-1 favorite, coupled with Noble Cornerstone, in the nine-horse field. Uncle Sigh was 7-2 and undefeated In Trouble was 9-2.

Samraat pressed the pace being set by In Trouble and Uncle Sigh. The top three runners separated themselves from their six challengers around the final turn.

Coming into the stretch, In Trouble was along the rail with Uncle Sigh to his outside and Samraat in third. The three colts dueled through the stretch with Samraat edging away to post a neck victory over Uncle Sigh with In Trouble another neck back in third.

In fourth was Financial Mogul followed by Harpoon, Master Lightning, Deceived, Extrasexyhippzster and Noble Cornerstone. Monopolize and Classic Giacnroll were early scratches.

The time for the Gotham was 1:44.44 on a fast track.

Owned by My Meadowview Farm, Samraat remained perfect in five lifetime starts and recorded his third straight stakes victory. Winning the Gotham was worth $300,000 and earned the colt 50 points toward a start in the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

“This is a real horse now,” said Violette. “We knew he had a shot to be a real horse after the Withers; he proved he is a real horse today.

“He was pretty impressive today. The Wood is a real possibility. That would be our best option as long as the horse cooperates and tells us that we should get on a plane and come up for it.”

Samraat began his career at Belmont Park last October with a 3 1/2-length win followed by an allowance victory in November at Aqueduct. He posted a 16 3/4- length win in Aqueduct’s Damon Runyon Stakes in December and came back on Feb. 1 by winning the $250,000 Withers Stakes.

The five wins have produced $783,200 in Samraat’s bankroll.

Samraat returned $6.40, $3.90 and $2.40. Uncle Sigh paid $4.20 and $3.00, and In Trouble paid $3.70 to show.

Categorized in: Horses