Much like he did in his career debut last October, Pandagate made an eye-catching 3-year-old debut Sunday at Aqueduct, rolling by leaders Doc Sullivan and Liberty Central and drawing away to a 5 1/2-length victory in the $100,000 Gander Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds.
Doc Sullivan, the only multiple winner in the field entering the Gander, got second by a neck over Liberty Central. Brown Don’t Stop, The Big Torpedo and Bali Amour completed the order of finish.
The win was the second from three starts for Pandagate, a son of Arrogate trained by Christophe Clement. Both wins came in one-turn-mile races versus statebreds at Aqueduct. His lone loss came in a first-level allowance against open company at Laurel in December, when he finished third after a rough trip into and around the first turn.
Clement sees Pandagate as a horse who will get a distance of ground and for New York-breds the three stakes he had in mind were the Gander, the New York Derby at Finger Lakes in July, and the Albany at Saratoga in August.
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But there’s a long way to go before July and Pandagate will likely get a chance to prove himself against open company this spring, though Clement was noncommittal after the Gander.
“I will keep him eligible to everything from the most ambitious to the least ambitious,” Clement said. “Let’s enjoy this and see how he comes out of this.”
In the Gander, Pandagate was bumped by Bali Amour coming out of the gate and was last of six under Dylan Davis, but less than four lengths out of it.
Meanwhile, The Big Torpedo and Liberty Central were the pacesetters - they went a quarter in 24.42 seconds and a half-mile in 48.55 - with Doc Sullivan, under Trevor McCarthy, a menacing presence to their outside.
When Doc Sullivan made his move toward the leaders, Davis followed Pandagate before going four-wide into the lane. Pandagate wrested the lead at the eighth pole and drew clear in the final furlong while galloping out impressively past the wire.
“It was exactly the way I thought it was going to go,” Clement said. “He’s never a great gate horse; he’s a big, tall leggy type of horse. My only instruction to Dylan was I’d prefer to be five out of it then 10 out of it. After the start, he got him into a nice rhythm, he’s a huge horse with a big beautiful stride.”
Clement said Pandagate had been training at Payson Park in Florida with Deterministic, a debut winner at Saratoga last summer who is scheduled to make his 3-year-old debut in next Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes.
Pandagate, owned by a partnership of Adelphi Racing Club, Corms Racing, Madaket Racing and On the Rise Racing, covered the mile in 1:40.67 and returned $4.80 as the favorite.
Davis told NYRA publicity that Pandagate switched off nicely after he got into stride following the bump at the start.
When Davis asked Pandagate to run, “it took a little while to get going but once he did that, he was game,” Davis said. “I kept him to task all the way to the wire because he is still a young horse that doesn’t know what is going on, but he has a nice big stride.”
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