Creative Cause’s top-class 3-year-old Twisted Tom scored the impressive win of his young career on Friday at Saratoga with a 4 ½-length win in the $250,000 Albany S. at Saratoga for his fourth added-money victory of the year.
Twisted Tom’s win came just two races after Cause We Are Loyal won the $200,000 Seeking the Ante at Saratoga, giving Creative Cause two stakes winners on the card.
Twisted Tom didn’t get an ideal trip in the Albany. He was off the pace and three-wide on the backstretch, then had to go four-wide on the far turn to make his run at the lead. Sweeping around horses, the chestnut made the lead in upper stretch, then asserted command in the final furlong to win going away.
“He really got a bad break in the first turn of the Belmont (Stakes), where a horse clipped him from behind and really cut the horse up bad,” trainer Chad Brown said when asked about Twisted Tom’s off-the-board finish in the final leg of the Triple Crown. “We’re really lucky it wasn’t a more serious injury. He didn’t get to run his race in the Belmont.”
On Friday’s performance, he added: “He had a really tough trip. He was very wide on his last turn and giving seven pounds to everyone in the field, which is a lot to spot here. To overcome all that and draw away like he did was great to see.”
Winner of the New York Derby last time out at Finger Lakes, and the Private Terms S. and Federico Tesio S., both at Laurel Park, in the spring, Twisted Tom is now 6-0-0 in nine starts and has earned $500,131 for co-owners Cobra Farm, RR Partners, and Head of Plains Partners.
