The Gun Went Off In France on Saturday

Lenny12’s The Gun Went Off won this Saturday’s Ark De Triumph in dazzling fashion here at Longchamp. Showing off the incredible turn of foot that he has now become known for, the brown colt joins some elite company in taking Europe’s most prestigious prize. With his victory the 3 year old son of Mineshaft has now won his fourth race in seven starts since being switched to the grass and his earnings now stand at $2,208,770. The colt also served noticed that he is ready to become one of the major grass stars in The Sim with his 3-1/4 length victory over the two top ranked older grass marathoners Max California and Questing Beast.

On a blustery fall evening in France, the massive crowd had speculated all afternoon about how the race would unfold. With no real confirmed front runners in the field the pace figured to be slow, but the question was, “Who would be in front?” As the horses went to post late money made Holdo the slight favorite over Max California and as the horses began to load a cacophony of boos from the crowd rained down on hopeless longshots PGA Wolf and Wrath of Tara. Jeers soon turned to cheers as the field was sent racing, and to the surprise of many the favorite Holdo was in front. Meanwhile The Gun Went Off was toward the rear of the field in ninth position. “He broke a little tardy but that was not a problem because I was where I wanted to be early on”, jockey Sean Graf told the press. “The colt was just dragging me around there. I had my eye on the favorites who were in front of me. When they began to move I thought maybe I had waited too long, but the colt’s acceleration was so explosive when I asked him to run there was never any doubt I was going to win the race”.

Max California held for second after stalking the early pace and Questing Beast was 5-1/2 lengths back in third. The post time favorite and surprise front runner Holdo finished fourth. Holdo’s rider William Mercy came in for some abuse by the French crowd but told the media at the press conference after that the front running tactics did not cost his colt the race. “He broke well and he inherited the lead because no one else wanted it. He was in front but he was running well within himself. When the others started running he tried to fight on but he couldn’t go with them today”.

Jockey Quotes

Brad Wu – Max California

“He ran well. We were stalking Holdo all the way and when I asked my colt he responded and I thought I had the race won. I was surprised the winner went by me so easily. It was his first race in a while and I think he just got a little tired late”.

 Jon Ledwith – Questing Beast

“He ran even the whole way. The acceleration that I expected wasn’t there today”.

Millie Mia – Rainband

“My colt never picked up the bridle today. He was never in the race at all. I chirped at him and tapped him on the shoulder coming into the stretch and there was nothing there at all”.

Stephan Sales – Wrath of Tara (1198/1 shot)

“The crowd got ugly when we walked onto the track. I think someone threw something at me. I don’t know what it was, but something hit me as we came onto the track. The abuse was unfair because the horse didn’t enter herself into the race and I was just doing my job. We never stood a chance so I just galloped around there. I think the owner knew the French crowd would be abusive because he was not at the track today”.