Durante scored a most surprising win Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 3, $275,000 Aristides Stakes and did so in a most unusual way.
A 33-1 shot in a six horse field – and on form his win odds could easily have been longer – Durante broke from the gate in the six-furlong Aristides like he’d been shot out of a cannon, led for about a furlong, was overtaken into the turn by the race’s two shortest prices, Skelly and World Record, yet somehow mustered a late outside rally to peg World Record in the last half furlong and post a one-length win.
Jose Ortiz rode the winner for David Jacobson, who has owned and trained Durante since buying him during the summer of 2023. A 6-year-old, Durante was making his 37th start and had not won a stakes since the Bold Ruler in October of 2023.
Durante was timed in 1:09.23 over a fast track and paid $68.44. World Record was fortunate to hang on for second, a neck in front of Giant Mischief and Happy Is a Choice, who dead-heated for third. Skelly, the 4-5 favorite, faded to last.
The Aristides unfolded at an absolutely breakneck clip that proved the undoing of Skelly and World Record. Skelly broke very poorly and while jockey Ricardo Santana did not rush him into the pace, Skelly is a pure speed horse and soon came alongside Durante, World Record just outside him. Outrun into the turn, Durante slipped back to third as the first quarter mile went in a wildly fast 20.93 seconds. The half-mile split came up 43.61, and turning for home World Record began edging away from Skelly while at first failing to change leads, finally doing so after a strong push from jockey Flavien Prat. But the lead-change boost World Record got was short-lived, and, meanwhile, Ortiz had guided Durante to the outside. Longshot or not, Durante kept on coming, helped by a slow final furlong, 13.27, best nonetheless.
Durante is by Distorted Humor out of Seahawk Girl, by Pioneerof the Nile, and was bred in Kentucky by William Humphries and Altair Farm. And out of nowhere, he won the Aristides on Saturday at Churchill.
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