Bear Tough Tiger fought off stable mate Bear No Joke to earn his first stakes score in Sunday’s Grade 3, $157,000 Kennedy Road Stakes, at Woodbine.
The chestnut son of Roar of the Tiger, trained by Reade Baker and ridden by Justin Stein for owner Bear Stables Ltd., sat off the early pace of Essence Hit Man and Something Extra before rallying to a narrow neck victory in the six-furlong ‘Poly’ sprint.
Essence Hit Man set pressured splits of :21.84 and :44.18 as Something Extra forced the issue. Bear No Joke, settled comfortably in fourth position by Stein from the inside-most post, angled off the rail through the turn and out finished Bear No Joke to win in a rapid 1:08.77. Something Extra held on for show money over a rallying Court of the Realm.
Stein was content to sit off the early pace of Essence Hit Man, who established the six-furlong track record of 1:08.16 in the 2011 Jacques Cartier Stakes.
“They ran away from everyone pretty quickly and opened up a good lengthy lead,” said Stein. “My horse was settled into stride down on the inside, and I was all by myself sitting there waiting for the race to develop as we came around the turn.”
Stein believes that Bear Tough Tiger, who entered the Kennedy Road off a prominent third-place effort in the grassy Grade 1 Nearctic Stakes, appreciated a chance to run at horses.
“He’s a gutsy horse and he’s really been improving,” said Stein. “I think it was really the long stretch, on the turf, that really wore him down (in the Nearctic). He did a lot of the work in that race. We drew an inside post in that race as well, and we had no choice but to go to the lead, and that’s what happened today but we had more pace to run at.”
Baker is hopeful the four-year-old Florida-bred gelding can continue his good form in Florida.
“He’s doing better all the time. He’ll go a little farther,” said Baker. “We might try the Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream before the year’s over and see if we can get a Sovereign Award or two.”
Bear No Joke banked $90,000 in victory, improving his record to seven wins, three seconds and a third from 12 career starts.
He paid $11.60, $4.80 and $3.40, combining with Bear No Joke ($16, $7.70) for a $200.30 (1-6) exactor. A 1-6-4 (Something Extra, $3.60 to show) triactor was worth $880.90 while a $1 superfecta [1-6-4-3 (Court of the Realm)] came back $1873.85.
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