A new three-year-old appears to be poised to enter the racing scene and stake his claim as one of the best of his crop.
His name is C J Russell.
The dark bay or brown colt is a son of El Corredor out of the Winrightt mare Miss Gibson Country – a bit of an unusual pedigree. This is not a colt who will win the Travers – he is bred to be a sprinter. But in a year in which the rest of the three-year-olds have been beating up on each other and exchanging victories, he could very well end up being the 2011 champion.
He is owned by Mike Pegram and trained by Bob Baffert – the same two men who raced such champions as Lookin at Lucky, Real Quiet, and Midnight Interlude.
He is lightly raced, with only two starts under his belt. In his first start, he broke his maiden running six furlongs at Churchill Downs in 1:09.62. One could claim that the impressive time was due to a perfect trip – he set only a moderate pace while on the lead and won by only three-quarters of a length after leading by 2 ½ passing the eighth pole. But his second start was what stamped him in my mind as a quality colt indeed.
On May 29th, he was sent off as the 1.40-1 favorite in a six furlong allowance optional claiming race at Churchill Downs. After breaking cleanly from gate four, he went up to take a narrow lead from San Antone and Biscotto while racing three wide. It is extremely difficult for a horse to duel for the lead while three wide – especially when he is dueling an opening quarter mile in :21.86. Yet this is what C J Russell was attempting to do.
The scary part was that he was doing it easily. His jockey Shaun Bridgmohan was just sitting there, occasionally glancing at the two rivals on his inside. On the far turn – while still in the three path – Bridgmohan asked C J Russell to go, and his mount responded instantly, gliding past the horses on his inside to take a clear lead. He entered the homestretch on top by a length after running a half-mile in :44.94.
And he stayed on.
Despite the blazing opening fractions, C J Russell continued to pour it on, closing his final quarter mile in :23.98 and his final eighth in :12.38. He did seem to be tiring just a bit at the finish, for he was drifting out a bit and had to really run to hold off the late charge of eventual runner-up Sandpiper. But it didn’t really matter. He hit the wire 1 ¼ lengths in front of Sandpiper – who was in turn 4 ¼ lengths in front of the third-place finisher – and stopped the clock in a blazing 1:08.92.
How well C J Russell ran becomes even more apparent when you realize where San Antone and Biscotto finished. They came home sixth and seventh after dueling with C J – beaten 12 and 13 ½ lengths, respectively.
I imagine that C J Russell will make his stakes debut soon. He is actually nominated to the Woody Stephens Stakes (gr. II) at Belmont Park on June 11th, but I can’t imagine him running there just thirteen days after his allowance victory. But in a year where no real standout three-year-old has emerged, victories in the finest sprint races in the country may be enough to earn C J Russell a championship. I think he has the talent.
-Keelerman
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