Mr. Susan Roy & Vinery Stables' AWESOME ACT made his 2010 debut and thrust himself into the Triple Crown picture with his stirring victory in the Grade III Gotham Stakes going a mile and one-sixteenth over the fast inner track at Aqueduct.
AWESOME ACT had never raced on dirt, but he handled the new challenge with consummate ease. Taken off the early pace, he experienced kickback for the first time and handled it like an old pro. He was amidst the midpack traffic as the field moved down the backstretch and as the field approached the far turn, jockey Julien Leparoux manuvered him into the clear that the two circled the field. Even with the leaders at the top of the stretch. AWESOME ACT was full of run and Leparoux had to let him go. He unleashed a brilliant turn of foot and burst away from the pack. He opened up by three passing the eighth pole and he was never seriously challenged to the wire, cruising in to win officially by a length and one-quarter.
“He did everything perfect,” said Leparoux. “He was beyond good on the dirt; it didn’t matter to him at all. He just did everything on his own, he put me in the right spots, and then he just finished very nice.”
“It’s the first hurdle out of the way, so the dream lives on,” said winning trainer Jeremy Noseda, who is based at Newmarket, England. “We’ll be back for the [Grade 1, $750,000] Wood Memorial [April 3].”
“We had the discussion about him possibly being a Derby horse after the Breeders’ Cup,” said Noseda. “I stood up and said, ‘I believe I can do it from Europe.’ Now, he’s been in America and we can move forward.”
AWESOME ACT will remain at Belmont Park with Noseda's assistants Wayne Tanner and George Windsor. He was bred in Kentucky by Flaxman Holdings Ltd and he was produced by the Mr. Prospector mare, Houdini's Honey, a full sister to Machiavellian and a member of one of the more celebrated families in the stud book.
Coglianese photo | 
