Domestic Product proved Chad Brown correct after the trainer said it took time to “dial him all the way down to seven furlongs,” and it paid off handsomely with a victory in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1) on Saturday at Saratoga.
Domestic Product outdueled Prince of Monaco in the deep stretch and won by a neck, with Book’em Danno third and Timberlake fourth in the field of 11 3-year-olds.
World Record set brisk fractions of 22.04 seconds and 44.28 for the half, but when the field came out of the turn into the stretch, it was the three favorites in contention – Prince of Monaco (2-1), Domestic Product (9-2) and Book’em Danno (3-1).
Domestic Product, taken five wide by jockey Flavien Prat, gained a short lead near the three-sixteenth pole, and held off Bob Baffert-trained Prince of Monaco.
Winning time for the race run just before the Travers Stakes (G1) was 1:21.71.
Trained by Chad Brown, Domestic Product won the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Derby (G3) back in March, finished 13th in the 1 ¼-mile Kentucky Derby (G1) in May, second in the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus Stakes in June before winning the 1-mile Dwyer Stakes (G3) in July.
Right after the Derby, I started to work backward from this race ... that we were going to try to do the same thing we did with his sire and cut him back on Travers Day, and it worked.”
Practical Joke, Dometic Product’s sire, ran fifth in the Derby, won the Dwyer, ran third in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, and then won the H. Allen Jerkens.
“From the half mile to the three eighths pole, he was traveling very well,’’ Prat said after winning his 14th graded stakes race during the Spa meet – one off the record. “After that, I thought he was very brave to get the win.
Domestic Product ($11) improved to 9-4-2-0 and boosted his earnings to 729,200 for owner Klaravich Stables.
Prince of Monaco, ridden by John Velazquez, came up just short a second time in a row, losing by half-length to Book’em Danno in the Woody Stephens (G1) on June 8. Book’em Danno, with Javier Castellano aboard, was well back in the field, made a strong move to get near the leaders but wound up a length behind Prince of Monaco.
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