Creative Cause’s top 3-year-old colt Twisted Tom won his second consecutive stakes at Laurel Park on April 22 with a convincing 2 1/4-length win in the $125,000 Federico Tesio S.
Regarded as the main Maryland prep race for the Preakness S., the 1 1/8-mile Tesio was Twisted Tom’s first test at the distance. The chestnut battled with Hashtag Alex for the first five furlongs, then faced challenges from Action Everyday and O Dionysus before drawing clear in the final furlong.
The final time was 1:53.60 over a sloppy racetrack.
“He really has [shown versatility],” said trainer Chad Brown. “It’s another thing I’m really proud of. He showed a new dimension today, and dealing with an off track he handled it fine. Feargal (jockey Lynch) deserves a lot of credit for using good judgment in keeping him out of trouble. He’s a big horse and although he was losing some ground he picked a good spot to let him relax and find his rhythm. When that horse came to him on the outside, he showed his heart.”
“Because he’s not [Triple Crown] nominated it certainly complicates things (thinking of the Preakness), so I’ll speak to the ownership group. Right now we’ll just enjoy this win. We’ll see how the horse comes out of the race physically and then we’ll all probably speak about it next week sometime and come up with a plan.”
Twisted Tom is owned by Cobra Farm and has now won three straight races, including the Private Terms S. and an allowance race at Aqueduct. His record now stands at 4-0-0 in six starts with earnings of $209,040.
Twisted Tom is from Creative Cause’s first crop; the Airdrie stallion is ranked in the top 10 on the Second-Crop Sire list with 14 winners to date.
