Caledonian, under jockey Eric Cancel, broke last in the field of five as Bavaro seized the early lead, taking his rivals through an opening quarter-mile in 22.90 seconds with Shoe Loves Shoe close in second. Caledonian picked off rivals along the rail as the field reached the turn.
Sal the Turtle made a bid for the lead as the field turned for home, overtaking the pacesetter after a half-mile in 46.80. Near the eighth pole, Caledonian found a seam between Sal the Turtle and a fading Shoe Loves Shoe and dug in along the rail to hit the wire a nose in front of Even Thunder, who launched a furious bid from the center of the track.
The final time was 1:12.19.
“I knew I had some horse, I just had to get after him to force him to give me more,” said Cancel. “I’m real happy with the result. I thought I got beat because by the angle I had, he [Even Thunder] looked in front. But thankfully we ended up with a victory.”
Caledonian, sent off at 10-1, returned $23 for the win. Winner of the Lost in the Fog on January 1, the New York-bred colt by Concord Point picked up his third victory for career earnings of $156,565.
“We missed a couple of breezes with him coming in, so we thought he might be a little bit short for this,” said winning trainer John Terranova. “But he had such a great breeze the other day working against a really nice horse of ours we have in the barn, and did it well so we felt very confident coming in.
“We thought he was going to run a big race, we just weren’t sure if he was fine-tuned enough to get it done, but he’s just been an honest horse…tough, gutsy and tries hard. We got the pace setup we wanted. I told Eric to just sit back and wait for it and hopefully they’ll set a good pace up front and we’ll close into it. He gets up. He worked hard for it and kept on fighting.”
Even Thunder finished 1 ½ lengths ahead of Sal the Turtle in third. Shoe Loves Shoe and Bavaro round out the order of finish.
