NEWS
English Channel caps career with runaway Turf triumph
Posted: Saturday, October 27, 2007 6:45 PM
ENGLISH CHANNEL
Photo by Z/Matt Barton
by Jeff Lowe
English Channel closed out his career in storybook fashion for New Jersey owner James Scatuorchio on Saturday, dispatching Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Lucien Barriere (Fr-G1) winner Dylan Thomas (Ire) in the $2,748,000 John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) at Monmouth Park.
Already a two-time winner of the United Nations Stakes (G1) at Monmouth, English Channel stormed out of the final turn and drew away to a seven-length win on the soft course.
Scatuorchio lives in Rumson, New Jersey, about six miles from the Oceanport, New Jersey, track.
“I don’t think you could script it any better,” Scatuorchio said. “That’s the stuff you dream about.
The Turf is the richest win in the career of trainer Todd Pletcher, who has developed a close friendship with Scatuorchio in their nine-year working relationship.
“[Scatuorchio] has been great to me all along,” said Pletcher, who registered his third Breeders’ Cup win. “To win a race like that for them is great, and it makes it even sweeter that it was at Monmouth Park, literally ten minutes from their house.”
English Channel, who completed the 1 ½ miles in 2:36.96 as the 3-to-1 second choice under jockey John Velazquez, finished fifth as a three-year-old in the 2005 Turf and third as a four-year-old in ’06. Scatuorchio said he has reached an agreement for the Smart Strike horse out of Belva, by Theatrical (Ire), to begin his stud career next year, with details to be announced next week.
A $50,000 yearling purchase, English Channel also is a two-time winner of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park, and he won the 2006 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs. He has 13 wins in 23 career starts and earnings of $5,319,028.
“He’s a deserving champion,” Pletcher said. “He’s just consistently done so well. It’s great to see him go out on a note like that. I was hoping that his agility and being kind of a smallish horse would help him on the yielding ground.”
Shamdinan (Fr) finished second at odds of 25.60-to-1, and defending Turf winner Red Rocks (Ire) followed three-quarters of a length back in third. Better Talk Now, the 2004 Turf winner, finished fourth.
Dylan Thomas never factored while finishing fifth as the 9-to-10 favorite and continuing the history of futility for Arc winners in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. None of the ten Arc winners to race in the Turf have been able to complete the double.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
