by Steve Myrick
Fab Oak Stable's homebred Nownownow, with the help of a well-timed ride by Julien Leparoux, captured the inaugural $916,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf by a half-length at Monmouth Park on Friday.
On a drenched turf course rated as yielding, Nownownow charged down the center of the course to nip 2.80-to-1 favorite Achill Island (Ire) just before the wire.
Nownownow trailed the field of 12 through the first six furlongs of the one-mile race, and was still seventh in early stretch. The WhyWhyWhy colt finished with a rush to prevail in 1:40 at odds of 12.60-to-1.
The winning trainer of record was Francois Parisel, who has taken on the horses previously trained by Patrick Biancone, who begins a suspension for violating horseracing drug rules in Kentucky on November 1. Biancone has been on the grounds for several days.
Leparoux left little doubt that Biancone was the one giving instructions.
“Patrick told me to make him relax and take him back a little bit,” Leparoux said. “He was very relaxed. I waited to the last moment, when I got him to the outside, he took off.”
Parisel said Nownownow, who is out of the Exit to Nowhere mare Here and Now, relished the soft ground.
“He's got all the breeding family, for the soft [turf],” Parisel said. “This was the plan, to relax in behind. We wanted some speed, and everything took off.”
Aiden O'Brien, trainer of Achill Island, said the Sadler's Wells colt does not like soft ground, so he was impressed with his runner-up finish.
“We were delighted with his run, he was just nabbed on the line,” O'Brien said. “He'll be a lovely horse for next year.”
Third-place finisher Cannonball, ridden by Elvis Trujillo, was 1 3/4 lengths behind Achill Island. Prussian, who was the 3-to-1 morning-line favorite but left the gate as the second choice at 3.60-to-1, led for the first six furlongs but faded to finish tenth.
“I feel like I rode a mile-and-a-half race out there,” said jockey Kent Desormeaux, who rode Prussian. “At the quarter pole, I had nothing left.”
Nownownow improved to two wins and three seconds in six starts and boosted his earnings to $641,950. He entered off a runner-up finish to Gio Ponti in the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Stakes on October 7 at Keeneland Race Course.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Steve Myrick is a Massachusetts-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent