Imperia breaks maiden in Pilgrim

Imperia breaks maiden in Pilgrim

Imperia angled his way out from the rail on the far turn and swung out wider

in the upper stretch to find room to run. Vision Perfect continued to hold the

lead on the front, but once Imperia had space he mounted a charge in the stretch

and flew past in the final yards to prevail by a length.

"I got lucky today with the way everything unfolded," jockey Javier

Castellano said. "I didn't have a horse in the race, and Kiaran asked me to ride

him this morning. I had a beautiful trip. He broke well, much better than last

time. He put me in good position early, and I got to save all the ground. I had

the best horse in the race, I just had to go around the horses and he took off;

I like the way he did it at the top of the stretch. For a young horse, he has a

very mature mind."

Imperia crossed the wire in 1:41 1/5 for the 1 1/16-mile test over the firm

turf as the 5-1 third choice, and paid $13 for the score.

Vision Perfect took runner-up and was one-length clear of third-place

finisher Offering Plan. Startup Nation, the 2-5 favorite, rallied to get up for

fourth. Face the Music, Strong Coffee, All I Karabout, Nutty Futty and Artie's

Flight rounded out the order of finish.

"We saw him work a little better (on the turf)," McLaughlin said. "He's

pretty good on the dirt, also, but he wants the distance, so we ran him long on

the turf at Saratoga. We're not saying we'll never go back to dirt, but we

could."

Imperia missed by a neck in his first career start at this distance on August

23.

The son of Medaglia d'Oro banked $120,000 for his first career win and has

$139,600 in his bank account from two starts.

Bred in Kentucky by Darley, Imperia is out of the Chilean

Horse of the Year and multiple Grade 1 winning Doneraile Court mare Cocoa Beach,

who is a half-sister to Argentinean Group 3 scorer Via Los Andres. The dark

bay's female family also includes Chilean Group 1 winner Poseida and Chilean

turf champion Campo Marzio. 

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