OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Salamis wasn’t among the original nominees to Sunday’s $150,000 Gio Ponti Stakes at Aqueduct, but when the field of seven 3-year-olds went to post for the one-mile turf race, Salamis was the favorite.
And a little more than 95 seconds after they sprang the latch, Salamis was the winner.
Sitting fifth by himself under Flavien Prat, about five lengths behind a solid enough pace, Salamis rallied five wide in the stretch and powered by the pacesetters to win the Gio Ponti by 1 1/4 lengths over Capitol Hill. It was another 1 3/4 lengths back to Griffin’s Wharf in third.
Candytown finished fifth, followed by Church and State, X Y Prime and Magic Pathway, the pacesetter.
Salamis, a son of Speightstown owned by Juddmonte and trained by Chad Brown, was coming off a maiden win at Saratoga last month, so he was taking on winners for the first time.
Prat didn’t see much speed in the race and wanted to be forwardly placed. But when he saw others - specifically Kendrick Carmouche on Magic Pathway and Ricardo Santana Jr. on Griffin’s Wharf - Prat took Salamis back.
Magic Pathway went a half-mile in 46.95 seconds, pressed by Griffin's Wharf, with X Y Prime and Candytown traveling in tandem behind them. Salamis launched his bid around the far turn, was widest of all turning for home and rallied by Griffin’s Wharf and held off a belated bid from Capitol Hill.
“On paper, it didn’t look like there was a whole lot of speed, I was kind of breaking with the intention of going,” Prat said. “But we all had the same intention. I was able to go to Plan B and tuck him in and from there he did the rest.
“I thought last time when he ran at Saratoga he showed a good turn of foot, really loved the way he ran, and he just repeated that,” Prat said.
Salamis covered the mile in 1:35.14 over firm turf and returned $6.32.
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