BALTIMORE – Reagan’s Wit may not always run straight, but he runs fast. Or at least fast enough.
Saturday, after making the lead in midstretch, Reagan’s Wit lugged in under Jose Ortiz, nearly brushing the rail, but he kept on going, widening his advantage to a 3 1/4-length victory in the $100,000 James Murphy Stakes for 3-year-old turf horses at Pimlico. Soleil Volant finished second, a half-length in front of Twain.
Ortiz, who has ridden Reagan’s Wit in his last four races, said the horse has shown immaturity before and he was waiting for him to do something again on Saturday.
“I know the horse, he does that when he makes the lead, start swapping leads, he doesn’t slow down,” Ortiz said. “I knew it. I was ready for him.”
Trainer Cherie DeVaux said she had tried blinkers on Reagan’s Wit after his fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland last month, but they didn’t make things better.
“He actually breezed terribly with them on,” DeVaux said from Kentucky where she watched the race on television. “He’s just got to figure it out.”
In the Murphy, Reagan’s Wit was five lengths off the pace in fifth down the backside while Curahee, under Luis Saez, appeared to be cruising on the lead through a quarter in 24.07 seconds and a half-mile in 48.69 and six furlongs in 1:14.41.
Reagan’s Wit split horses at the quarter pole, came outside of Curahee at the eighth pole and once he made the lead, started coming in. Ortiz said Reagan’s Wit did not hit the rail, but he was waving his left-handed whip to try and straighten him out.
“That’s just him, I don’t know what to do, I waited as long as I could,” Ortiz said. “He switched leads on point, he came between horses like a pro, and as soon as he open up one length he starts switching leads.”
DeVaux said she was happy to see Reagan’s Wit show some life in the paddock, something he didn’t do at Keeneland.
“At Keeneland, he was a bit sullen, he ran okay, we were expecting a little bit better,” DeVaux said. “We wanted to see what he was going to do in this race before we made any plans for him. So, now we’ll see how he comes out of it. I was really watching him close in the paddock, he was bucking and playing and acting like the way he normally does.”
Reagan’s Wit, a son of Authentic owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, David Ingordo, and CJ Stables, covered the mile over good turf in 1:40.25 and returned $3 as the favorite.
The win capped a perfect day at Pimlico for DeVaux, who earlier on the card won the Chick Lang Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters with Retribution.
“That horse has been improving as he’s run and as he’s trained on, we were confident that he would take another step forward and he did.”
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