Excerpts from Joseph David, Stronach/1st Racing
Elizabeth Merryman’s six-year-old, Maryland-sired gelding Witty (Great Notion x Zeezee Zoom Zoom (Congrats)) came from last to first at Pimlico today to win the $125,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint. He was the 21-1 long shot bid.
The race is for thee-year-olds going five furlongs on the turf. It is named for the late Hall of Fame broadcaster and Philadelphia native who is perhaps best known as the host of ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and then later as “the voice of the Olympics.” McKay was instrumental in conceiving and launching the groundbreaking Maryland Million in 1986. He passed away in 2008 at 86.
This afternoon, Witty broke last from the gate and trailed his rivals. He faced “a wall of horses” until the 1/8 pole, when he began to “uncork” his run. Jockey Flavien Prat found a hole between the horse on the rail (No Nay Hudson) and the horse to his right (Mattingly) and “rocketed home” to win in 59.61 seconds.
Prat said “That race set up perfect. They kind of ran away from me at first, then in the turn, he started making up a bit of ground. I thought maybe I’m gonna get a piece of it then all of a sudden, I asked him for run and he took off.”
Trainer Elizabeth Merryman agreed. “That’s him. He always comes from way off the pace. There was a ton of speed in the race, so I expected him to be way behind. You never know, it was a long ways back. Like Flavien (Prat) said, turning for home he thought he’d get a piece of it and all of a sudden he was four in front. I like that part!”
Witty’s win comes on Merryman’s 61st birthday.
