Pyrenees Caps DeVaux Stakes Triple With Stretch-Running Pimlico Special Victory
Cherie DeVaux
Nellie Carlson photo
Cherie DeVaux was already having a good day at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, following stakes victories by Shotgun Hottie in the Allaire du Pont Stakes and She Feels Pretty in the Old Hilltop Stakes – the latter having given the trainer her first Grade 1 triumph last year in the Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.
Then Pyrenees came roaring down the stretch under Brian Hernandez Jr. in the Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special to upset odds-on favorite Kingsbarns, putting the icing on the cake for DeVaux with a stakes triple.
“I've never won three races in a day, so we'll take this," DeVaux said.
The 4-year-old Into Mischief colt, owned and bred by Bonnie Baskin and Adam Corndorf's Blue Heaven Farm, was making his stakes debut after three consecutive victories in maiden and allowance company and closed into a slow pace, winning by three-quarters of a length and covering 1 3/16 miles in 1:57.73. The winner carried 120 pounds, six pounds fewer than Kingsbarns under the allowance conditions of the Pimlico Special. He paid $12.20 as the third choice in a field of seven.
Kingsbarns, who raced just to the outside of pacesetter Harlocap through fractions of :24.80, :50.26, 1:15.57 and 1:39.79, put that one away in midstretch, but could not hold off the fast-closing Pyrenees. Harlocap held third, 2 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up, with 2-1 second choice Red Route One – who kicked a wall in the saddling paddock prior to the race – not showing his usual stretch run and finishing fourth. Be Better was fifth, followed by Royal Ship and Double Crown.
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Hernandez tucked Pyrenees on the rail just behind Harlocap and Kingsbarns early, content to let those two battle on the front end. Royal Ship ranged up just outside of Kingsbarns approaching the three-eighths pole, but when he failed to sustain his bid rounding the stretch turn, Hernandez tipped Pyrenees off the rail and three wide into the stretch.
Kingsbarns, winner of the G2 Louisiana Derby in 2023 and two-for-two this year since making his return to the races from a nine-month layoff, took the lead in midstretch but did not have enough to hold off Pyrenees, who took five starts to leave the maiden ranks but is unbeaten since that initial win at Fair Grounds last December.
Pyrenees (Into Mischief) pulls away from Kingsbarns to win the Pimlico Special under Brian Hernandez Jr.
Maryland Jockey Club photo
“They went so slow in front of us," said Hernandez. "We were following the favorite. Of course, he looked like the horse to beat. He was 2 for 2 at the mile and three-sixteenths. As slow as they were going, I got a little worried around the second turn, because it stayed bunched up and we were kind of in a pocket. We were just kind of waiting for something to kind of move. When Johnny’s horse died off a bit straightening out for home and Kingsbarns didn’t run away from him, he only opened up a like a length and a half on him, I was pretty confident in our horse being able to run him down."
"He's been a horse that's been a challenge for us, and he faced a lot of adversity in that race," DeVaux said of the Pimlico Special. "Didn't have a clear trip, had to sit back, and then they were going so slow, for him to close into that was really special."
“The first time he ran, he double-barreled the jockey and sent him flying across the screen," she added. "He really trained like he knew he had a lot in him but always hung back. We were trying blinkers, then he had a pretty significant injury that caused the layoff (he was away from the races from December 2022 until a year later). So, we just regrouped with him. Really that's all we did. He forced us to give him the time.
"He's definitely more mature, I don't know if confidence is in his skill set of thinking.”
On winning three stakes, DeVaux said: "It's not really anything in the forefront. We were just hoping the horses showed up: A horse like him, stepping up into stakes company and him performing, and Shotgun Hottie coming into form, and She Feels Pretty, her first start since last year. You just hope you come in here and the horses run their race, they come out sound, they come out healthy. That's the most important, the last part. It's great. This is my first time really running here on my own. I only came here one time before with Chad (when she was an assistant to Chad Brown). So, I think I'll have to make this a yearly visit."
Luis Saez, who rode Kingsbarns for Todd Pletcher, commented: “We were going good. He was in a perfect spot. The pace was slow. Didn't matter. He ran down the lane. He just got caught by a good horse at the end.”
The 54th running of the Pimlico Special was the fifth of six stakes, three graded, worth $1 million in purses on a sensational 14-race Black-Eyed Susan (G2) Day program, immediately preceding the 100th edition of the 1 1/8-mile fixture for 3-year-old fillies.
The Pimlico Special was created in 1937 by Alfred Vanderbilt, the master of Sagamore Farm, as the first major stakes in the United States set up as an invitational and was won by Triple Crown champion War Admiral. The following year, War Admiral was upset by Seabiscuit in what Sports Illustrated called the ‘Race of the Century.’
Revived in 1988 by late Maryland Jockey Club president Frank De Francis, the Special’s illustrious roster of winners also includes Triple Crown winners Whirlaway, Citation and Assault, and modern-day Horses of the Year Criminal Type, Cigar, Skip Away, Mineshaft and Invasor.
