Sent off as the 4-5 favorite in a small field of five, Citizen Bull ($3.80) enjoyed a comfortable trip with Martin Garcia aboard, covering the mile in 1:36.71.
Citizen Bull. Benoit Photo.
The Juvenile Champion made his Sophomore Debut a Winning One
“The champ is back,” trainer Bob Baffert said after winning his seventh straight Robert B. Lewis. “The ‘Bull’ looked good coming down [the stretch]. It’s funny; you see him, but you don’t realize that he has those gears. He won’t show you that in the morning, but he does have gears.”
Baffert ran 1-2-3 in the Lewis, with Rodriguez (7-5) second and Madaket Road (5-1) third. Citizen Bull closed out his 2-year-old campaign with wins in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Clock Tower (12-1) and Valentines’ Candy (49-1) completed.
“He was fresh,” Garcia said. “When I was warming him up, he just wanted to go, and you could see that he was ready. When the gates opened it was like the ground broke underneath him. He just broke too fast. But right away he recovered.”
Citizen Bull picked up 20 points on the road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) with the victory in the points qualifier, improving his first-place total on the leaderboard to 60 points. Rodriguez picked up his first 10 points on the Derby trail.
Burnham Square drew clear in the final sixteenth of a mile and posted a 1 ¾-length victory in the $265,000 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park on Saturday.
After breaking his maiden four weeks ago by nine lengths, the 3-year-old gelding picked up 20 qualifying points on the road to the Kentucky Derby (G1). The 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull awarded 10-6-4-2- Derby points to the next four finishers in the field.
Burnham Square ($4.60), trained by Ian Wilkes and ridden by Edgard Zayas, put away favorite Tappan Street at the top of the stretch and won in 1:43.60. He’s won both races after being equipped with blinkers.
“The key is the blinkers. I had to put the blinkers on because he wasn’t helping me at all. I had to help him,” Wilkes said. “He wouldn’t help the jockey. He wouldn’t start running in the race. He’d run away from horses, wouldn’t run into the dirt. He did everything wrong.”
Tappan Street was second, with Burning Glory 9 ¼ lengths further back in the third.
No question, trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. Was delighted with Captain Cook’s 2 ¼-length victory in the $250,000 Withers Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct on Saturday.
Captain Cook ($4.90), ridden by Manny Franco, came into the 1 1/8-mile Withers off a maiden win at second asking by 9 1/4 lengths, and Dutrow was anxious to see the Wither would unfold.
“It feels good that we can head him towards another big race for his next start. I love that. I’m not thinking about the Derby right now, but he did get the job done the right way,” Dutrow said. “He went three-wide around both turns here, didn’t break so sharp. First time around two turns, mile and an eighth – he ran big.”
The Withers, a prep race on the road to the Kentucky Derby, awarded 20-10-6-4-2 qualifying points to the top five finishers on a sliding scale.
Surfside Moon was second, followed by Omaha Omaha, Mo Quality, Uncle Jim, Global Steve, and Corvus.