LEXINGTON, Ky. – Whether Tommy Jo, the 2-5 favorite, would have pushed past pacesetting Percy’s Bar and finished first in the Alcibiades Stakes will never be known. But everyone watching the race Friday at Keeneland knew, when Percy’s Bar came off her line and rolled into Tommy Jo’s shoulder at the three-sixteenths pole, making clear contact and costing Tommy Jo precious momentum into the race’s final furlong, that a stewards’ inquiry and a jockey’s objection were forthcoming.
The decision, reasonable if tough to swallow for Percy’s Bar’s connections, came fairly quickly, the 2 3/4-length winner disqualified and placed second behind the filly she had just beaten in the Grade 1, $650,000 Alcibiades for 2-year-old fillies.
“I like felt watching it, it was pretty significant contact with Tommy Jo, not only to get bumped but drifting out two or three paths after that,” said Tommy Jo’s trainer, Todd Pletcher. “That part of it was, I thought, was an easy disqualification. In terms of whether we were going to beat that filly to the wire, I don’t know.”
Indeed, after chasing Percy’s Bar through quick fractions of 23.13 and 46.90, Tommy Jo, 2 for 2 to start her career and a snappy winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway in her last start, was struggling to take the measure of Percy’s Bar, a filly she had beaten 6 1/2 lengths in that race.
Percy’s Bar, who won her first two starts, coming from off the pace in both those races as well as in the Spinaway, broke alertly from post 1. To the surprise of many, she quickly made the lead, looking comfortable galloping along under Luan Machado in her first two-turn try.
“The plan was to be closer, for sure,” trainer Ben Colebrook said. “And when she broke so good, I had told him not to take anything away from her.”
Tommy Jo got away decently, too, and going into the first turn, jockey John Velazquez faced a choice: take back and get to the rail behind Percy’s Bar or let his mount go forward to press the pace from the No. 2 path. Tommy Jo helped make the decision, throwing her head a couple times, resisting stout restraint. Thus, Tommy Jo wound up in chase mode, and there she stayed going into and around the second bend. Percy’s Bar was not stopping.
“She came off the bridle a little bit, I thought, at the five-sixteenths pole. It looked like it was going to be a pretty good race from that point,” Pletcher said.
Velazquez, too, held no certainty that Tommy Jo was poised to pass the leader.
“We were fighting, that’s for sure,” he said. “I almost got head and head with [Machado and Percy's Bar]. He hit left-handed the first time, and the second time he really came out.”
Machado had no doubt Percy’s Bar was turning back Tommy Jo. “She was just the best horse,” he said.
Machado thought he had a half-length or so on Tommy Jo, which is close to accurate, and also said Percy’s Bar came out as she was in the process of changing leads, which is not. Percy’s Bar had changed leads several strides before, when Machado still had his crop in his right hand. It was, as Velazquez said, the left-handed stick that led to the unfortunate incident.
For Colebrook, the defeat stung painfully. Colebrook grew up outside Lexington and has been around horses all his life. Keeneland long has been his home base. He has had some good horses but not many in a position to win a Grade 1. His lone win at that level was the 2018 Breeders’ Futurity here at Keeneland with Knicks Go, who would wind up in a different barn. Colebrook trains Percy’s Bar for Hat Creek Racing, whose principal is Gatewood Bell, Keeneland’s vice-president of racing. Colebrook pointed Percy’s Bar toward this race since she won her debut here in the spring. She ran a winning race Friday – and didn’t win.
Third, 2 3/4 lengths behind Tommy Jo, came The Grumpy Rabbit, but the Alcibiades was strictly a two-filly contest. Percy’s Bar, in a race that slowed dramatically in the late stages, was timed in 1:44.69 over a fast track. Tommy Jo paid $2.88 to win.
Tommy Jo is by Into Mischief, who stands at the farm of owner-breeder Spendthrift Farm, and out of Mother Mother, by Pioneerof the Nile. The Alcibiades is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, but Tommy Jo already had earned automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies by winning the Spinaway. All being well, she’s showing up for the race at Del Mar. So is Percy’s Bar, Colebrook said.
“I thought it was a good performance from her, but I didn’t think it was as good as what we saw at Saratoga,” Pletcher said.
Pletcher doesn’t believe distance limitations led to the step back Tommy Jo took Friday. Maybe she felt those two fast races she ran this summer. She met Percy’s Bar on that filly’s home track. Percy’s Bar took it to her. Tommy Jo took home the win.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.