OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Pivotal Moment concedes a lot in experience and recency to his eight rivals in Saturday’s $150,000 Paradise Creek Stakes at Aqueduct, but the visual of his maiden victory may be too much for bettors to ignore.
Pivotal Moment made an eye-catching move from sixth to first around the far turn when he won a five-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 22, a race in which he was eased up at the end yet still won by four lengths.
Oddsmaker David Aragona was impressed enough with that performance to make Pivotal Moment the 2-1 favorite in a field that includes three stakes winners.
Now, that win was three months ago and the field Pivotal Moment beat is a combined 0 for 10 since. But layoffs are of little consequence to horses coming from the Christophe Clement barn and Irad Ortiz Jr. sees fit to take the call on this son of Bolt d’Oro. Moreover, Pivotal Moment’s stalking style and outside post should serve him well as he figures to track a pretty solid pace.
Pivotal Moment won his maiden eight months after he finished third in his debut at Aqueduct, a race in which he was squeezed back at the start and was rushed into contention by Joel Rosario.
“He looked like the winner at the quarter pole but he idled a bit,” Miguel Clement, assistant to his father Christophe, said of the debut. “We put blinkers on for his next start and he was very impressive. You don’t see many horses circle the field six wide, and in three strides he opened up five lengths.”
Miguel Clement said Pivotal Moment was pointing to the Palisades Stakes at Keeneland in early April but with the large amount of rain that area received, the Palisades was moved to the dirt. Pivotal Moment wasn’t even entered.
Miguel Clement said his biggest concern in Saturday’s six-furlong turf sprint is the condition of the course, which was expected to absorb as much as an inch of rain on Thursday.
“He’s very fast, he needs it firm. I don’t know if we’re going to get that,” Clement said.
Among the horses Pivotal Moment will have to reel in are stakes winners Supersonic Blue and Warheart.
Supersonic Blue, trained by Neil Drysdale, is coming off a front-running victory in the John Shear Stakes over the hillside course at Santa Anita on April 6. He flashed good early speed not only in that race but in his maiden victory going six furlongs over the flat course in January, also at Santa Anita.
“I’d say he’s still a little green but he’s improving,” Drysdale said.
Flavien Prat takes the call on Supersonic Blue from post 7.
Warheart was a front-running winner of the Atlantic Beach Stakes here last November for trainer Rodolphe Brisset. He is winless in two starts since, but did get bumped in the William Walker Stakes at Churchill Downs on April 30. Prat rode him in that race.
“He’s not a real big horse, when Flavien tried to push his way out, he bumped with the horse next to him, and it killed his momentum a little bit,” Brisset said. “All in all, not a bad race.”
The horse Warheart bumped with was Jet Sweep Joe, who is back in this field. He finished two lengths behind Warheart in the Walker. Jet Sweep Joe was beaten a head in the four-horse Skidmore Stakes last summer at Saratoga.
Clock Tower, trained by Wesley Ward, won the one-mile Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar last Dec. 1. He is cutting back to a sprint distance after finishing eighth in the Transylvania Stakes going 1 1/16 miles at Keeneland on April 7.
Trainer George Weaver has the uncoupled pair of Super Swift, second to Warheart in the Atlantic Beach last fall, and Insubordination, fifth in the English Channel at Stakes at Gulfstream on May 3.
Assertiveness and Flat to Da Mat complete the field.
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