Arlington Stakes (Grade 3)- $225.000 Purse
CD- For Four Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
June 3, 2023

There was every reason to like Bronze Bomber in the Arlington Stakes, especially when considering that he had scored two triple digit SRF’s in his prior two starts. That would make him our pick in the preview, and the bettors at the track would also find him to be the most appealing option. Here, he would prove why he was the best horse in the field, running well right from the start and never looking back en route to an impressive win. This six-year-old gelding is trained by Threshold, who has been getting the hang of getting big winners in races that I write up lately! It is his first win in the Arlington Stakes, and that is also true for jockey A Beschizza. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:38.82, but we can’t really compare that to any other prior editions of the race other than last year. That said, it was over a second faster than last year’s race. Let’s take a look at how it happened!

(1/4 Mile- :23.59)- It would be the two horses in the middle of the starting gate breaking the quickest, and initially it would be Arindel’s Ovechkin with a slight advantage. But that one could not get a breakaway from the rest of the field and would have Threshold’s Bronze Bomber slip on by to his inside. It would be Bronze Bomber getting the lead just in time before the quarter mile to get credit for being the leader here. Running behind these two, it would be the veteran from Mb Stables, in third on the rail while having Fire And Ice run to his outside. It’s two lengths back to Black Card as Wood Duck Stables looks to get another winner in one of my races, while Tiger Claw, from Fractious, is at the back.

(1/2 Mile- :46.91)- Around the opening turn and into the backstretch, Bronze Bomber would get the better of Ovechkin and now pull out to a lead of a little more than a length. Ovechkin is trying to hang in there and will for now. Pxg runs third still, and he seems to have a very good spot on the track right now and can wait for his time to strike. He’s a little quicker than Fire And Ice as well and pulls a length ahead of the one that had been right alongside of him. A large gap is now opening to the two trailers, Black Card and Tiger Claw.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.8F To Go)- Bronze Bomber is now beginning to make this look easy as he effortlessly rounds the turn only extending his lead more and more. By the time they reached the top of the stretch, he had about a three-length lead on the rest of the field, and there was no one that was looking to mount a challenge on him. But Threshold knows as well as anyone that you can’t celebrate a victory quite yet. Perhaps, Pxg, a horse that he has likely written about on many occasions, could be the spoiler here with a run as that one looked to make a move on Ovechkin. Still, there was plenty of work left to do. You could forget about the rest of them.

(Finish- 1:38.82)- Coming off of two excellent races where he didn’t get a win to show for it, Bronze Bomber was not going to be denied here today. There would be no let up at all in the stretch, and we’ll call it the HRP-rout three length win, even though it needed to be .02 bigger of a gap to be called three lengths. Simply an impressive performance in every regard, and we will need to keep an eye on this one as the summer moves along. Someone would need to complete the exacta, and Pxg fans will be happy it was him, but he had nothing whatsoever for the winner. Fire And Ice edges Ovechkin for third, and eventually Tiger Claw and Black Card finished the race as well.

About The Winner- Bronze Bomber, trained by Threshold and ridden to victory by A Beschizza, is a six-year-old gelding by Worst Case Scenario and is out of Isolated. He was bred in Ontario by Mb Stables as a second quarter two-year-old, and was acquired by Threshold, via Luz International, with a $15.000 claim in December 2021. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his seventh in 24 starts, his second stake win, and first graded win. His career earnings are now $446.090.

Track: Firm
Time: :23²  :46⁴  1:10   1:38⁴

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 3 – 1 Paid 22.60
$1 Trifecta: 3 – 1 – 6 Paid 91.10

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES