Realm gets up late in thrilling Alydar finish
By Jeff Scott SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The field for Sunday’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes – restricted to four-year-olds and up who haven’t won a non-statebred stakes in 2018 – was mostly made up of horses who were looking for class relief after disappointing in their most recent outing versus top competition.
The exception, as well as by far the longest shot on the board at 12-1, was Realm, who hadn’t competed in a graded race since May of last year. The 5-yearold gelding was coming off a victory in his seventh attempt to win a second-level allowance. For Realm, the Alydar was a step up in class.
Enjoying a ground-saving trip under Junior Alvarado, while staying several lengths off the pace, Realm swung a half-dozen paths wide turning for home. By this point, Kurilov (3-2) had taken over the lead from Outplay and appeared to have a clear path to the wire. But Realm, gaining a bit of ground with every stride, looked to still have a chance. With a last surge nearing the finish, the Virginia-bred got up on Kurilov and won the bob by a short head. The running time for nine furlongs over a “fast” main track was 1:50.09.
“[Junior] rode him nice and coolly, and cut him to the outside when he had to,” said winning trainer Barclay Tagg. “You’ve got to get him to the outside, but you don’t want [to do it] too early and lose all that ground. Junior rode him perfectly.
“I didn’t know I’d have two Chads [Brown] and two Todds [Pletcher] in there either,” Tagg added, noting that the two leading trainers each had two horses in the race. “I said to [assistant] Robin [Smullen], ‘If we win this, it’ll be great.’”
It was only Alvarado’s third time aboard Realm, although he’d been working the Alydar winner recently.
“We were expecting him to run good, even if he didn’t win,” said the veteran rider. “He’d been working really good. I said to Barclay the last time I worked him, “The chance to win a stakes race is right now because he feels like he’s on top of his game.”
Patch finished a length behind Kurilov for the show spot. Favored Timeline (3-2) and Outplay trailed.
The Alydar victory was Realm’s fourth win in 22 starts (he also has nine placings) and boosted his career earnings to $350,795. The son of Haynesfield races for Eric Dattner, Barclay Tagg and Astarita Racing.