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Colizeo scores in Northern Dancer

Colizeo withstood a challenge on track and off (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Wertheimer and Frere's homebred COLIZEO (Distorted Humor) set the pace along the rail in Saturday's $136,375 Northern Dancer S. (G3) at Churchill Downs and just withstood the pressing Worldly (A.P. Indy) late to take his stakes bow by a neck. Jockey Garrett Gomez guided the Todd Pletcher trainee through fractions of :24 4/5, :49, 1:13 1/5 and 1:37 before finishing up the 1 1/16-mile fast-track test in 1:43 3/5. "He set a nice easy pace up front and really showed he had some talent today," Pletcher said. "We've taken our time with him and he's run against some talented horses. If you look at the allowance race at Gulfstream, he ran against the likes of Fly Down (Mineshaft) and First Dude (Stephen Got Even). He ran a good race and keeps taking a step forward after every race. He has potential. We'll see how he comes back and look at our options for his next start." "We didn't feel like there was a whole lot of pace in the race and he ran pretty good like that the other day so ideally I wanted to ride him like I did the other day," Gomez said. "(Jockey) Robby's (Albarado) horse (Worldly) kept coming on and I thought I had him where I wanted. I asked mine for a little more and his horse would come back and eyeball me again. I thought once I really asked my horse I thought I would run away with it. I had a hard time doing that today. This was a good test for the horse."

Colizeo entered this event off a wire-to-wire win against allowance rivals under the Twin Spires and was sent off the 8-5 favorite against his five rivals in this one. The sophomore paid $5.40, $3.80 and $2.80 while starting the $30.40 exacta and $201.20 trifecta. Worldly had to steady a bit heading into the first turn while in close quarters, and jockey Robby Albarado lodged a claim of foul against Gomez on Colizeo for that interference. The stewards disallowed the claim, and Worldly gave back $6 and $4 as the 5-1 fourth pick once the race had been made official.

"On the first turn I just got pinched back and squeezed," Albarado explained.

Vow to Wager (Broken Vow) tracked in third throughout and filled that spot on the wire, returning $4.20 at 8-1. Max Silverhammer (Wild and Wicked) rounded out the 4-1-5-7 superfecta that was worth $1,121.80, while Prince Will I Am (Victory Gallop) and Crider (Closing Argument) completed the order under the wire. Spoon River Lew (Maria's Mon) was withdrawn.

Colizeo took four tries to break his maiden, finally getting the job done on January 22 at Gulfstream Park by 5 1/2 lengths. He ran fourth behind Dwyer S. (G2) winner Fly Down, who was second in the Belmont S. (G1), and First Dude, second in the Preakness S. (G1) and third in the Belmont, in his first try against allowance rivals, but finally passed that condition prior to this one. By taking his stakes debut, Colizeo now sports an 8-3-2-0 career mark and more than doubled his earnings to $154,077.

The Kentucky-bred Colizeo is the first registered foal out of Colony Band (Dixieland Band), who captured a stakes stateside as well as in France. Colony Band placed in Grade/Group 3s during her career and since heading to the breeding shed has produced an unraced juvenile filly named Accordia (Smart Strike), a yearling colt called Colony Strike (Smart Strike) and a 2010 filly named Colona (Pulpit). Colizeo's third dam is French Group 2 heroine Fabulous Hostess (Fabulous Dancer) and he comes from the same family as Group 1 scorer Reve d'Oscar (Highest Honor [Fr]) and this year's Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1) heroine, Bethrah (Marju).

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