Built too tough in Vanderbilt

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Built made it look easy in Saturday’s $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G2) at Saratoga, dominating the stretch drive in the six-furlong test for older sprinters. Favored at 6-5, Built tracked the pace in second before overtaking pacesetter Damon’s Mound, and he finished up in 1:09.14.

Wayne Catalano trains the four-year-old son of Hard Spun and Irad Ortiz Jr., who won both graded stakes on the program and six races total, rode the bay colt, who scored by 2 1/2 lengths.

"I broke clean, so after that it was pretty easy, honestly,” Ortiz said. “I just let him go. He put me in a good position, I took my time with him, and he did the rest. Every step of the way, I felt like I had horse."

A close second in the June 27 Bango (G3) at Churchill Downs, Built earned his first graded stakes victory and improved his overall record to 14-6-2-3. His only previous stakes tally, the Gun Runner at Fair Grounds, came late in his two-year-old season, defeating Magnitude, who has developed into a top older horse at longer distances. Built will target the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Keeneland in late October.

“Just what we thought he was going to get, he got,” Catalano said of Built’s trip. “(Ortiz) did a great job. He was a little antsy in the gate, and (Ortiz) wanted to reset him because last time, he kind of bobbled away. Everything worked out today.”

Catalano won the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Sprint with eventual champion Aloha West, one of four Breeders’ Cup race winners for the “Cat Man.”

Hymn rallied from just off the pace to edge Damon’s Mound by a neck for second. T Kraft came next in fourth and was followed by Cat On Time and Nutella Fella.

Built was bred in Kentucky by Robert and Lawana Low and passed through the sales ring twice, with Eclipse purchasing him for $260,000 at the 2024 OBS April two-year-old sale. He’s the first stakes winner out of the Curlin mare Sea Garden, and this is the immediate family of Grade 1-winning sprinter Marley Vale.

The Forego (G1) on the Aug. 29 Travers undercard, a “Win & You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is an option for his next start, but Catalano indicated it may be too short a turnaround for Built.