An Inside Job for Congaree

Both Jerry Bailey and his rival jockey, John Velazquez, agreed on one thing: When Bailey and Congaree reached the rail by the first turn of Sunday’s $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, the race was all but over.

“The rail opening up made all the difference,” Bailey said after riding Congaree to a three-length win. “That was definitely the place to be.”

After breaking from the No. 4 post, Congaree was able to slide inside, and halfway down the backstretch, he moved past the already-tiring pacesetters, Golden Ticket and Western Pride. Turning for home, Bailey was brimming with confidence, even though the invader from New York, Harlan’s Holiday, was trying to overtake Congaree.

“The rail opened up pretty easily for the other horse, and I had to use my horse to reach position as we got to the half-mile pole,” said Velazquez, who rode Harlan’s Holiday. “My horse ran hard after that, but he didn’t have enough left. I had to make too big of [an early] run to catch up with him, and he had another gear.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher had shipped Harlan’s Holiday cross-country to try to beat Congaree, who was the 6-5 favorite. Congaree paid $4.40, becoming the first favorite to win the race in four years.

“I thought we were in the spot where we wanted to be,” Pletcher said, “but letting Bailey inside didn’t help. That jump-started Congaree.”

Harlan’s Holiday, who had run over 11 tracks but never at Hollywood Park, finished two lengths ahead of Kudos, who ran third after going off as the second choice. Piensa Sonando was fourth.

“He gave it a great try,” jockey Alex Solis said of Kudos, the only horse in the field with a win at the Gold Cup distance of 1 1/4 miles. “I can’t take anything away from the winner. My horse tried his best, but the others didn’t come back to him like I had hoped.”

The Gold Cup win, worth $450,000, was the coda to a banner day for Bailey and Bob Baffert, who trains Congaree for Texans Bob and Janice McNair. Earlier, Bailey, the country’s leading rider, rode the Baffert-trained During to an upset victory in the $400,000 Swaps Stakes. In another stake, Bailey finished second with You as Cee’s Elegance won the $250,000 A Gleam Handicap. Bailey, who is based in New York, earned his third win aboard Silver Yen in the last race on the card.

“If I got During home from the eighth pole, I kind of figured I’d be able to do that with Congaree as well,” Bailey said.

Congaree’s come-home time was slow, yet none of the closers could overhaul him. The time for 1 1/4 miles was 2:00 2/5, fastest since Real Quiet in 1999. Real Quiet gave Baffert his first Gold Cup win.

Bailey has won five Gold Cups in nine mounts, and had a second-place finish with Geri in 1996. The recently retired Laffit Pincay Jr., who was honored in a winner’s-circle ceremony before a crowd of 21,017 shortly afterthe Swaps Stakes, holds the Gold Cup record with nine victories, one more than Bill Shoemaker. All of Bailey’s previous victories -- Sultry Song, Cigar, Skip Away and Real Quiet -- came in the 1990s.

For Congaree, this was his 11th win in 20 starts and the first after two unsuccessful attempts at 1 1/4 miles. He finished third in the 2001 Kentucky Derby and was second, barely beaten by Milwaukee Brew, earlier this year in the Santa Anita Handicap. The 5-year-old son of Arazi and Mari’s Sheba has now earned more than $2.7 million.

“There wasn’t any doubt,” Baffert said, referring to the Gold Cup distance. “Like all horses, if they get the right trip, they can get [the distance]. Those fractions [:45 3/5 for first half mile, 1:09 2/5 for six furlongs] were real racehorse fractions. He was spitting out those leaders every quarter pole. He looked like Seabiscuit making his move around the turn. I haven’t seen a move like that since I saw the Seabiscuit movie the other night.”

Bailey won his 12th Grade I race this year. Overall, he has won 41 graded stakes and his horses have earned more than $11 million in 2003.

“When we turned into the backside,” Bailey said, “they slowed it up just a shade, and he kind of got aggressive. So I just decided to go ahead and let him go. Even though Harlan’s Holiday made a little move at him, I never really felt I was threatened. At least today there wasn’t any question about a mile and a quarter. As the year gets longer, the competition gets a little stiffer, but I’m sure he’ll improve himself.”

While Baffert didn’t indicate any immediate plans for Congaree, Pletcher said Harlan’s Holiday might run in the Whitney Handicap, another $750,000 race, on Aug. 2 at Saratoga, where the colt will be stabled.

“I thought my horse might take off [in the stretch], or Congaree might get late, but it didn’t happen,” Pletcher said.

The trainer had scratched Harlan’s Holiday out of the Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park last Saturday to run in the Gold Cup.

“I’m still happy I made that decision,” Pletcher said. “I was hoping that Congaree wouldn’t show up with his ‘A’ game today, but he did.”