Tacticus wires Temperence Hill over V. E. Day

Tacticus earned his second straight stakes win on Saturday at Belmont Park with a nice wire job in the Temperence Hill Invitational S.

Only four lined up in the 1 5/8-mile marathon contest, with 2014 Travers (G1) winner V. E. Day installed as the 1-2 favorite.

Tacticus exited the gates as the second choice at 2-1 and proceeded to lead all the way under jockey Joel Rosario. The rest of the field was never far back and ranged up to take on the longtime pacesetter rounding the final turn, but Tacticus easily turned away all challengers and drew off for a 3 3/4-length victory.

The four-year-old son of A.P. Indy is no stranger to long distance races and stopped the clock in 2:44.66 over the fast main track. The Flaxman Holdings homebred made his career debut in a one-mile all-weather contest at Lingfield in November 2013 and didn’t go less than 10 furlongs in his next eight starts overseas.

Tacticus showed up in trainer Graham Motion’s barn in late spring and tried U.S. competition for the first time at Saratoga on July 26. The bay colt ran fourth while going 1 1/8 miles on that occasion but returned last out to earn his first stakes score in the August 12 Birdstone S. at the Spa.

Quotes

Graham Motion, winning trainer of Tacticus (No. 3): "I think this is just natural for him. I think he keeps improving. He ran well in the allowance at Saratoga, we took a shot and ran him back in the stakes (Birdstone on August 12), and I thought that today he ran even better.

He was so confident. He kind of switched things up; he ended up on the lead and he handled it. I was very impressed with him today, to be honest. It's a small field, but he beat a nice horse in V. E. Day and I loved the way he did it. We talked about (being on the lead) in the paddock. We thought there was a chance we would, which made me nervous, but Joel was confident. We basically said, with this horse, you can't get too cute.  He's going to run his race. He's a galloper; he'll gallop all day."

Joel Rosario, winning jockey aboard Tacticus (No. 3): "Perfect trip. We went to the lead and had easy fractions. I thought maybe someone was going to go to the lead but nobody went and I just took it from there. I just stayed on and he got stronger as he went along."

Tacticus photo courtesy of NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography/Joe Labozzetta