BY BROCK SHERIDAN
DECEMBER 6, 2014—Mossarosa’s Catholic Cowboy and jockey Luis Saez went to work at the top of the lane to make up three lengths on a front-running Cerro (Ire) and win the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel by half-length at odds of 17-1. The 4-year-old Florida-bred covered nine furlongs in 1:49.70 in defeating 13 other 3-year-olds and older who had started for a claiming price of $35,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2013. It was the last of eight Claiming Crown races worth $1 million on the opening day card of the Gulfstream Park Championship meet.
Page McKenney had one horse beat in the second turn but produced a big late run to finish second with Jose Lezcano aboard. Cerro and jockey Cecily Evans hung on to finish a neck farther back in third.
Despite having won three of nine starts that year, Catholic Cowboy was dismissed by the wagering public to pay $37.80 on a $2 win ticket.
It was the second consecutive year that Zito and Saez teamed up to score in the Claiming Crown Jewel after winning with Nevada Kid in 2013.
“He’s brave, and when he’s brave he gets himself in good position,” Saez said. “When we came to the three-eighths pole, I saw somebody pass me from the outside and he looked like I was done. But when we turned in the stretch and I started riding him, he responded to me. He just took off.”
Catholic Cowboy won for the first time in his ninth start, a $50,000 maiden claiming at Gulfstream Park to start 2014. After four unsuccessful outings against allowance horses at Gulfstream and Belmont Park, he won a $5,000 starter allowance race at Belmont in July and a first level, $85,000 allowance at Saratoga Race Course in August in consecutive starts. He did not take to the Keeneland in his next two races with off the board finishes in second condition, $62,500 optional claiming races but came back sharp to win the Jewel and earn $110,000.
“He went a little funny on us. We didn’t understand why, so we did the next best thing and gelded him. That always helps, because the mind goes back to where it’s supposed to be,” Zito said. “He’s been fantastic now. He had some great works. Luis [Saez] wouldn’t give up, and that was the key.”
In his next start, Catholic Cowboy finished third in Sr. Quisqueyano’s Sunshine Million Classic in January then was off the board in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap in February.
He would continue on a productive career that lasted 20 more races through May of 2018 including a victory in the $60,000 Old Hickory Stakes at Gulfstream Park in February of 2016. Catholic Cowboy retired with six wins, four seconds and nine thirds with earnings of $488,171.
He was by Heekseeker (Ire) out of Kombat Lake, by Meadowlake and was bred in Florida by Luis de Hechavarria.
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