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Divine Park wins Met Mile on Memorial Day

Mon 26th, May 2008

Elmont, NY (Sports Network) - Divine Park, winner of the Westchester Handicap, ran down the favorite Commentator to capture Monday's $600,000 Metropolitan Handicap (Met Mile) at Belmont Park. It was the third straight win for the colt.

The Met Mile is a very important race leading to the Breeder's Cup on the racing calendar. Last year Corinthian won the Met Mile on his way to claiming the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Monmouth Park.

In the 2008 edition, even-money favorite Commentator took the lead out of the gate and led the field up the backstretch. Sitting second was First Defence with Global Hunter racing third and Kiss the Kid fourth in the nine horse field.

Heading into the far turn Commentator and First Defence were still one-two with Global Hunter moving into third and Premium Wine in fourth. Around the turn for home Commentator and First Defence hooked up on the lead as Premium Wine advanced into third and Kiss the Kid was now fourth.

Coming out of the turn First Defence took a short lead over Commentator. The favorite retook the lead at the top of the stretch and began to pull away from First Defence.

Rallying on the outside was Divine Park and jockey Alan Garcia. Divine Park caught Commentator and rider John Velazquez with less than 100 yards to run. Divine Park went on to post a two-length victory over Commentator with Lord Snowdon finishing third.

The time for the Met Mile was 1:36.91 on a fast track.

Rounding out the order of finish was Council Member, First Defence, Z Humor, Kiss the Kid, Premium Wine and Global Hunter. Z Humor and Premium Wine were an entry.

Divine Park is owned by James J. Barry and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. The four-year-old pockets $360,000 with the Memorial Day victory to more than double his career earnings to $607,935. He has won six of eight lifetime starts, including last year's Withers Stakes to go along with the Westchester last month.

"He is a very nice horse, but he started out that way," said McLaughlin. "He won his first three, including the Withers, so he is right where we thought he would be. And he is doing fabulous. He had won a race at Keeneland on Polytrack, so we sent him to California, figuring he would be able to handle the synthetic surface. But he drew the 14 hole and was wide the whole time. Plus, coming off the long layoff, he needed the race. Then, we went to Laurel, he broke through the gate and that kind of rang his bell a little. He won his next race and the Westchester was huge."

Divine Park returned $6.50, $3.40 and $2.70. Commentator, who had a two-race winning streak stopped, paid $3.10 and $2.60, and Lord Snowdon paid $5.90 to show.

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