{"id":725,"date":"2014-06-07T17:18:28","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T17:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linda-rice.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2014-06-07T17:18:28","modified_gmt":"2014-06-07T17:18:28","slug":"kid-cruz-rallies-to-win-easy-goer-stakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/kid-cruz-rallies-to-win-easy-goer-stakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Kid Cruz Rallies to Win Easy Goer Stakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kid Cruz<\/a><\/span>\u00a0benefited from a sizzling early pace to rally from last to first to defeat favored Legend by 3 1\/4 lengths in the $150,000\u00a0Easy Goer Stakes<\/a>\u00a0on the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) undercard June 7 at\u00a0Belmont Park<\/a><\/span>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

A 3-year-old son of\u00a0Lemon Drop Kid<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0whose connections opted for the Easy Goer over the Belmont, Kid Cruz broke at the rear of the nine-horse field under Irad Ortiz Jr., as\u00a0Life in Shambles<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and Joel Rosario sizzled through early fractions while being closely trailed by longshot\u00a0Howl<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

As the leaders took the field through fractions of :22.68, :45.68, and 1:10.18 for six furlongs, Kid Cruz was content to run evenly in the rear. The colt began to make his run rounding the turn as Ortiz deftly moved his mount to the rail and rallied turning for home.<\/p>\n

With\u00a0Misconnect<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and Javier Castellano taking the lead at the top of the stretch, Ortiz again made a smart move, taking Kid Cruz through a crowd to the far outside and kicked clear after a mile was completed in 1:34.99.<\/p>\n

With the rest of the field gaining on the early leaders, Kid Cruz continued on to win the 1 1\/16-mile test in 1:41.12. The 3-1 second choice, Kid Cruz paid $8.90, $4.10, and $2.10, with Legend, the 2-1 favorite returning $3.80 and $2.80. Life in Shambles held third, paying $3.20. The order was completed by Misconnect,\u00a0Souper Lucky<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Pass the Coffee<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Effinex<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0No Surrender<\/a><\/span>, and Howl.<\/p>\n

Trained by Linda Rice for Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds and Black Swan Stable, Kid Cruz has won four of seven starts and earned $248,375.<\/p>\n

The colt won the Private Terms Stakes and Federico Tesio Stakes, both at\u00a0Pimlico Race Course<\/a><\/span>, before finishing a flat eighth in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) won by Triple Crown contender\u00a0California Chrome<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall, Kid Cruz was purchased by Black Swan Stable for $80,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale. The colt was claimed by Rice on behalf of Vina Del Mar for $50,000 when he broke his maiden atAqueduct Racetrack<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in his second career start Nov. 22. Black Swan eventually bought back in to the colt.<\/p>\n

“This is terrific,” Rice said. “He needed it, we needed it, and we want to keep him going in the right direction. He made an inside-outside move. In the past, he’s been making a big, sweeping move and losing ground on the turn, but Irad saved ground on the inside, made the inside-outside move, and then when I saw the half, it was our race to lose.<\/p>\n

“We’ll probably point to the Dwyer (gr. II, July 5) and keep trying to let him learn his craft.”<\/p>\n

“(Trainer Linda Rice) told me to sit back, and that’s what I did,” Ortiz said. “I had horse, and, when I asked him, he took off. I just had to find a spot and get out.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kid Cruz\u00a0benefited from a sizzling early pace to rally from last to first to defeat favored Legend by 3 1\/4 lengths in the $150,000\u00a0Easy Goer Stakes\u00a0on the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) undercard June 7 at\u00a0Belmont Park\u00a0. A 3-year-old son of\u00a0Lemon… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}