Arkansas
Cyberknife wins $1M Haskell at Monmouth Park
OCEANPORT, N.J. — Arkansas Derby winner Cyberknife made a daring transfer alongside the rail to move beforehand unbeaten Jack Christopher, then held off Bob Baffert’s Taiba to win the $1 million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday.
Ridden by Florent Geroux, the Brad Cox-trained colt ran 1 1/8 miles in a track-record 1:46.24 in attending to the wire a head in entrance of Taiba and denying Baffert a record-extending tenth win within the Grade 1 stakes.
Jack Christopher, who had gained all 4 of his earlier begins for coach Chad Brown, completed two lengths again in third within the discipline of eight 3-year-olds.
It was a well-liked win for Gold Sq. LLC, which is run by Al Gold, a long-time fan and proprietor on the Jersey Shore observe. He named the yearling Cyberknife as a result of he had that kind of process to remedy a case of prostate most cancers in 2021.
The win additionally secured a berth within the Breeders’ Cup Basic this fall at Keeneland.
Cyberknife paid $17.60, $5.20 and $2.80 in successful for the fourth time in six begins this 12 months, and earing $600,000 for his proprietor.
Taiba, who returned to the Baffert barn this month after the Corridor of Famer completed severing a 90-day suspension for the disqualification of Medina Spirit within the 2021 Kentucky Derby, returned $3.80 and $2.60 with Mike Smith driving. Jack Christopher, the 3-5 favourite with Jose Ortiz driving, paid $2.20.
Brown and jockey Flavien Prat had a monster day on the Haskell undercard, saddling and driving the winners of the $400,000 Monmouth Cup, the $200,000 Matchmaker Stakes, the $400,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes and the $600,000 United Nations Stakes in consecutives races.
Brown’s horses ran 1-2 within the Monmouth Cup, with Extremely Motivated ($3.60) beating Pipeline and with Lemista $11.20) holding off Fluffy Socks within the Matchmaker. Search Outcomes ($3.20) romped within the the Molly Pitcher and Adhamo ($5.60).
Brown additionally saddled the winner of the $60,000 allowance race with Manny Franco guiding Superior Aaron to victory. The 5 wins tied a observe coach’s document on Haskell day.