Force the Pass Races Clear in the Belmont Derby

It was a race on paper that seemed like anybody’s to win, but nobody was beating Force the Pass (Speightstown) after the Richard Santulli homebred took over in upper stretch of Saturday’s $1.25-million GI Belmont Derby. French raider Canndal (Fr) (Medicean {GB}) gave his all, but the GIII Penn Mile hero found another gear and zoomed away to run up the final score to 3 3/4 lengths. Startup Nation (Temple City) rounded out the trifecta, while favored Bolo (Temple City) was vanned off after setting the pace and fading to last. “[We had a] good trip, perfect trip,” offered winning rider Joel Rosario. “He broke a little slow and then we were covered right away. It looked like we were going to be fourth going into the first turn, but we ended up being second or third. He was getting out a little bit going forward and I just tried to stay near the rail. As soon as I got to the three-eighths pole, I got room to go on the inside and just went forward and controlled the race from there.”

BELMONT DERBY INVITATIONAL S.-GI, $1,250,000, BEL, 7-4, 3yo, 1 1/4mT, 2:01.16, fm. 
1–&FORCE THE PASS, 122, c, 3, by Speightstown 
1st Dam: Social Queen (MGSW, $344,164), by Dynaformer 
2nd Dam: Gal On the Go, by Irgun 
3rd Dam: Gypsy, by Marfa 
O-Richard Santulli; B-Colts Neck Stables LLC (KY); 
T-Alan E. Goldberg; J-Joel Rosario. $670,000. 
Lifetime Record: 6-4-2-0, $1,030,084. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: 
A+. 
2–Canndal (Fr), 122, c, 3, Medicean (GB)–Clodovina 
(Ire), by Rock of Gibraltar (Ire). O-HH Aga Khan; 
B-Haras De S.A. Aga Khan S.C.E.A. (FR); T-Mikel 
Delzangles. $230,000. 
3–Startup Nation, 122, c, 3, Temple City–Pennyrile, by 
Wagon Limit. ($95,000 Ylg ’13 SARAUG). 
O-Klaravich Stables Inc. & William Lawrence; 
B-Spendthrift Farm (NY); T-Chad C. Brown. $125,000. 
Margins: 3 3/4, HF, NO. Odds: 10.10, 9.50, 13.90. 
Also Ran: Closing Bell, Takeover Target, Postulation, Divisidero, Granny’s Kitten, Bolo. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Force the Pass rallied from out of the clouds to be second on debut going 7 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream on Valentine’s Day, and earned his diploma over the same course and distance the following month from a next-out winner. He added the Cutler Bay S. at that venue Apr. 21, but came up 3/4 of a length short in Pimlico’s James W. Murphy S. May 16. The chestnut rallied resolutely to take home the winner’s share of the $500,000 Penn Mile two weeks after that, but was being asked to stretch farther than a mile for the first time. 

Force the Pass took up a perfect pocket spot as Bolo slowed it down through soft fractions of :24.57, :50.30 and 1:15.38. He was given his cue by Rosario to take command leaving the home bend as that rival came up empty and off the inside, but Canndal loomed a dangerous presence in behind under Christophe Soumillon. Rosario knew what he had underneath him, however, and only had to give his mount mild encouragement for him to quickly settle the issue. 
According to Trakus data, Force the Pass covered his final quarter mile in :22.07 and half in :45.65. His victory represented a graded stakes double for sire Speightstown, who was also responsible for GIII Dwyer S.-winning ‘TDN Rising Star’ Speightster one race prior. 

“We were hoping [early on] for a dirt horse because he handled everything so well,” revealed winning conditioner Al Goldberg who saddled, among others, Grade I-winning turfers Laughing (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) and Tannery (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) for Santulli. “Very professional. We brought him up here three days ago–he’d never been here before–and he never turned a hair. We’ll give him the summer off and look towards the fall.” 
A $275,000 KEESEP yearling in 2005, Social Queen won graded stakes on the grass for these connections in 2008 and 2009. The half-sister to the dam of last week’s GI Mother Goose S. runner-up Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful) produced an English Channel colt in 2014 and a full-sister to Force the Pass earlier this year. 

Bolo’s co-owner Keith Brackpool offered a positive update on the favorite, tweeting, “Bolo appears to fine after being vanned off the track. Jockey reported that the horse took a bad step and so stopped riding him.”