CJ Stables’ Reb Five surged past Throckmorton 20 yards from the finish en route to a neck victory in the $300,000 Palisades (L) for 3-year-olds Sunday afternoon at Keeneland.
Trained by Mark Casse and ridden by Jose Ortiz, Reb Five completed the 5½ furlongs over a firm turf course in 1:04.06. It is the second win in the race for Ortiz, who first won on Fandom (GB) in 2024.
Monster opened a daylight lead out of the gate in the field of 11 by clicking off an opening quarter-mile in :21.05 with favored Schwarzenegger and Throckmorton in closest pursuit and Reb Five far back.
On the turn, the top three remained unchanged while behind them Ortiz was beginning to move on Reb Five. At the eighth pole, Throckmorton took over from Monster with Reb Five getting an inside run.
At the sixteenth pole, Reb Five moved to the outside of a tiring Monster and took aim on Throckmorton before collaring him in the final yards.
A Keeneland sales graduate, Reb Five is a Kentucky-bred son of Vekoma out of the Palace Malice mare Ill Will. The victory was worth $172,050 to increase Reb Five’s earnings to $288,413 with a record of 6-3-1-0.
Reb Five returned $34.36, $13.40 and $8.38. Throckmorton, ridden by Luis Saez, returned $8.82 and $5.84 and finished 4½ lengths in front of Azizam (GB), who paid $9.58 to show under Javier Castellano.
It was another neck back to Itza Lock with Monster, Sandal’s Song, Schwarzenegger, Walter the Mason, Intricate Spirit, Shipmate and Archimedes following in order.
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The final three days of the Spring Meet kick off Wednesday with an eight-race program beginning at 1 p.m. ET.
Keeneland will offer a Pick 6 carryover of $54,038.