This time the stewards at Arlington Park saw no evil. This time Powerscourt took the straight and narrow road.
Disqualified from first and demoted to fourth for lugging in during the stretch run last year, the 5-year-old horse from Ireland redeemed himself with a decisive victory in Saturday’s Arlington Million.
America’s top grass horse, Kitten’s Joy, took a brief lead in the upper stretch but was no match when Powerscourt made his move and had to settle for second, nosing out third-place Fourty Niners Son.
Last year Powerscourt was ridden by Jamie Spencer when he took his run on the wild side. During the off-season in Europe, Spencer resigned as the stable jockey for Ireland’s top trainer, Aidan O’Brien, and Kieren Fallon replaced him.
“I hadn’t ridden in the Arlington Million, but I’ve watched it,” Fallon said. “This was one of the best Arlington Million fields I’ve seen. I’m very surprised to have beaten Kitten’s Joy as well as we did.”
Although Fallon was making his Million debut, he came to Arlington with considerable American riding behind him after spending two months at Gulfstream Park over the winter.
“You couldn’t buy experience like that, riding against Jerry Bailey, Edgar Prado and Jose Santos,” he said. “It’s very difficult to come from Europe to ride a race and be competitive without having the experience I got during the winter.”
When post positions were drawn, Fallon was concerned because Powerscourt drew post No. 9 in the 10-horse race.
Fallon decided that he had to take immediate action.
“I was trying to get inside to save some ground,” he said. “My goal was to get down to the rail before I hit the first turn. Then, I cruised all the way down the back side, just working my way through the field. I was hoping to be behind the leaders turning for home. As soon as I got the openings, I asked him and he quickened immediately.
“When the splits came in the stretch, he went right through the middle. This little horse deserved to win. He was unlucky to be taken down last year.”
Thanks to the disqualification in the 2004 Million, Powerscourt took an 11-race losing streak into Saturday’s 23rd running of the 1 1/4-mile grass race.
Since scoring his last victory in the Group I Tattersalls Gold Cup on May 23, 2004, he had traveled to England, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirate of Dubai.
In addition to last year’s Million, he came back to the U.S. for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Lone Star Park, where, after taking the lead, he tired in the stretch and finished behind Better Talk Now and Kitten’s Joy.
In Saturday’s race, Better Talk Now couldn’t catch him, coming from last to finish a non-threatening fourth.
“He was not the same horse he usually is,” jockey John Velasquez said. “He just kind of flattened out. He was not very aggressive like he usually is.”
Both trainer Dale Romans and jockey Edgar Prado said they thought 9-10 favorite Kitten’s Joy would have fared better if the runner-up had the benefit of another prep race after winning his first start of the year July 4 in the Firecracker Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs.
“It’s tough to hook these kinds of horses when you’re coming off one race,” Romans said. “We just got outrun. Powerscourt ran a great race.”
Despite his long losing streak, Powerscourt was the second choice at 5-1 and he paid $12.40, $4.60 and $3.40 after racing the 1 1/4 miles on yielding turf in 2 minutes 3.38 seconds, more than three-fifths of a second slower than his time on firm turf last year.
The blue-blooded son of Sadler’s Wells and maternal grandson of Rainbow Quest–both outstanding European runners–is the first horse based in Ireland to win the Million.
Six others from Europe have been victorious–England’s Tolomeo (1983), Teleprompter (1985) and Sulamani (2003); France’s Mill Native (1988) and Dear Doctor (1992) and Germany’s Silvano (2002).
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nmilbert@tribune.com
