By Brisnet.com
| BALTIMORE, Md. (Apr. 18, 2015) — California-bred Bodhisattva’s (Student Council) efforts to wire Saturday’s $100,000 Federico Tesio S. at Pimlico were derailed a bit when Noteworthy Peach (Read the Footnotes) headed him in the stretch, but the chestnut colt battled back on the inside of that rival to take command once again and this time draw off for the 1 1/2-length win.Trained by owner Jose Corrales and ridden in the 1 1/16-mile contest by Trevor McCarthy, Bodhisattva set splits of :24 4/5, :49 and 1:13 3/5 as Noteworthy Peach kept in close contact just to his outside. All Hands (Unbridled’s Song), the full brother to Eight Belles, was sent off the 6-5 favorite in this spot after breaking his maiden by seven lengths on March 15 at Aqueduct and saved ground on the inside just behind those two on the backstretch.
All Hands couldn’t keep up as Noteworthy Peach began his move, ranging up to run in tandem Bodhisattva in the lane. Those two battled it out to the wire, with the latter stopping the clock in 1:45 on the fast main track. “It was pretty clear with the soft fractions that we got away with one,” McCarthy said. “I thought (All Hands) would go with me and I actually yelled to (jockey) Fernando (Jara), ‘Go on with it,’ but he didn’t; he took back. I said, ‘Ok, this is our race. Let’s go for it.’ (Bodhisattva) went out there with the easy fractions and we actually re-broke at the quarter-pole. |
“I was surprised. I mean, I was going slow and thought this was a dream come true. Then, he gave me a new gear at the eighth-pole,” McCarthy added. “He really dug in and fought, and I hadn’t seen that side of him before today.”
Bodhisattva paid $10.80 as the 4-1 third choice in the six-horse field. The Tesio has long been considered a local prep for the Preakness S. (G1) on May 16, and the chestnut is nominated to the Triple Crown, but Corrales was non-committal on his three-year-old’s participation in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.
“Everybody wishes for that, but I want to see how everything goes from here,” the horseman explained. “The horse tells me when he’s going to run next. I don’t pick a race in advance until I find out how a horse is coming out of the race and how he is getting ready for the next one. He ran well today.”
Bodhisattva earned his first stakes win in the Tesio following a runner-up effort in the Private Terms S. at Laurel Park on March 21. He just missed by a half-length when fourth in the Miracle Wood S. prior to that one, and now boasts an 11-3-1-4 career line to go along with $165,095 in lifetime earnings.