RACE REPLAY BELOW ARTICLE
It is a style that has worked time and again for Set Piece. Concede ground to the entire field early, and then make a late run to the winner’s circle.
As it was in his last two victories, Set Piece (5-1) went from worst to first. Unlike those wins, he and jockey Florent Géroux chased hot fractions Saturday on the way to setting stakes and Colonial Downs course records in winning the 1 1/4-mile, Grade 1 Arlington Million.
“You hate to be that far behind,” said Katie Tolbert, assistant to winning trainer Brad Cox. “But when you see fractions like that, and you know the horse so well, and Florent knows him really well, it gives you a little confidence he’s going to make his run at the end and be able to get there.”
On a turf course as pretty as a billiard table that was baked firm by 91-degree heat, Strong Quality (9-2) established early fractions of 22.96, 46.67 and 1:10.12. All the while, Set Piece was 11th of 11 and, as the coincidence of the chart calls would have it, as many as 11 lengths behind.
That was just fine for Géroux.
“With those fractions, I was very pleased with how the race developed up the backside,” Géroux said. “From there I was just biding my time. I was happier when turning for home. I started making the move, and I started going by some of those horses very fast. I knew from there I was going to be tough.”
For the gelding bred in Great Britain by his owner Juddmonte, the fast lane proved to be seven wide going around the second turn. With a quarter-mile to go, Set Piece found himself in third. Only Strong Quality, who was fading, and defending Million winner Santin (7-1), who had stalked his way to the lead, were ahead of him.
“It was nice to see him come back and run his race again,” trainer Brendan Walsh said of Santin, who would snap a streak of five consecutive off-the-board finishes since his Million score covering 1 1/8 miles last year at Churchill Downs.
After that first mile went in 1:34.02, Walsh thought for a moment Santin might be the first two-time winner of the Million since John Henry did it in 1981 and 1984.
“But then I looked back, and I saw that horse coming from out of the pack,” Walsh said. “It was like, oh, maybe not.”
“I was pretty confident,” Tolbert said. “By the time we hit the turn, and he moved out, he looked like he was going to make a run for it and hopefully get there, so we’re really happy. ... I love a closer. I know not everybody does, because sometimes it doesn’t work out your way. But it’s exciting when you see him come running.”
With left-handed urging from Géroux, Set Piece passed Santin on the way to a two-length triumph. His time of 1:58.19 crushed the old track record of 1:59.62 by Red Giant in 2007, and it was better than Awad’s 1:58.69 in the 1995 Million at Arlington Park.
