On Monday at Belmont Park, the Pulpit colt nailed down his first Grade 1 victory with a three-quarter-length win over a talented field in the $600,000 Metropolitan Handicap (G1). With the win, Corinthian joins a joins a distinguished list of past Met Mile winners...

including three-time Horse of the Year Forego, who won the race in 1976 and ’77. 

The Met Mile has served as a springboard for many winners to future success in the breeding shed, including Wild Rush, Langfuhr, Honour and Glory, Holy Bull, In Excess (Ire), Gulch, Fit to Fight, Fappiano, and Cox’s Ridge. Recent winners include 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, champion sprinter Aldebaran, and 2005 TVG Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) winner Silver Train.

Trained by Jimmy Jerkens for owners Centennial Farms, Corinthian broke well and stalked the pace from four wide in fourth as Mr. Umphrey, Half Ours, and Latent Heat dueled for the lead through an opening quarter in :23.21 and a half-mile in :45.70

“When I saw him break and laying that close, I knew we were in business,” Jerkens said. “When he is juicy and on the muscle, he’s right.”

Corinthian raced within a length of the leaders through the turn under jockey Kent Desormeaux and surged to the lead entering the stretch, where he was confronted by multiple Grade 2 winner and 1.65-to-1 favorite Lawyer Ron.

“When a good horse is traveling well, 45 [seconds] feels like 48 [seconds],” Desormeaux said. “I thought we were going slow, but I knew the caliber of horse I was on. He was so within himself.”

Corinthian dug in resolutely on the inside of Lawyer Ron, gradually wore down that foe, and comfortably held off a late bid from runner-up Political Force to prevail in 1:34.77 on a track rated fast.

“He ran to his workout the other day,” Jerkens said of a bullet five-furlong work in :58.17 handily on May 21. “The work a week ago was beyond anything I ever saw. I never had a horse do what he did. He was just strong all the way. He was terrific all week. I thought if he didn’t run good today, he just wasn’t good enough.”

Political Force, trained by Jimmy Jerkens father, Racing Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, edged third-place finisher Lawyer Ron by a half-length. Multiple Grade 2 winner Sun King finished fourth, followed by Grade 1 winners Latent Heat and Silver Wagon.

Corinthian entered the Met Mile off a disappointing fifth-place finish on April 7 at Aqueduct in the Excelsior Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G3), when he lost all chance when he broke in the air and was left ten lengths off the pace at the first point of call.

The Excelsior was not Corinthian’s first instance of finding trouble in a race or acting up in the paddock. He finished first but was disqualified to third for interference in the stretch in his stakes debut as a three-year-old in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park in March 2006.

In his first two starts this season, Corinthian showed his vast potential. He left 2006 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Jazil reeling in his wake in a 9 1/4-length romp in an allowance/optional claiming race at Gulfstream Park on February 8 and followed with his first official graded stakes victory in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) on March 3.

Jimmy Jerkens has described Corinthian as very hot-blooded and almost impossible to control when in the presence of a filly or mare. He and Centennial Farms have taken steps to harness the Pulpit colt’s ability.

Corinthian was sent to Centennial’s Middleburg, Virginia, farm for a mental freshening after a third-place finish at Saratoga Race Course last July, and his connections even tricked him into thinking he was running one week before he was actually slated to make his seasonal debut.

“He came back a bigger and stronger horse, he trained very well,” Jerkens said in February. “We had to do a lot of schooling in the paddock. We had to ship him [to Gulfstream] a week before the race, and we made him think he was running. And he was terrible that day, but it did a lot for him. He was much, much better on the day he ran.”

Corinthian improved to five wins from nine starts and boosted his earnings to $694,273. A half brother to Grade 2 winner Desert Hero, Corinthian is out of the Easy Goer mare Multiply.

“We were going one at a time, worrying about this race,” Jerkens said of plans for Corinthian. “We’ll have to discuss it with [owners Don Little Jr. and Don Little Sr.] where he goes next. We were willing to throw out the Excelsior to get ready for this one.”
Source www.thoroughbredtimes.com