Napoleon Solo made it 2 wins from 2 starts for Chad Summers as he made every yard to win the Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday afternoon. He had been a very comfortable winner of a Saratoga maiden over 6 furlongs at the start of August, but despite an impressive winning margin, there was nothing in the data from that performance that would suggest that he was going to dominate a Grade 1 in the manner that he did on Saturday evening.

A wider draw in stall 8 could have been an issue for such an inexperienced horse, but Napoleon Solo took it all in his stride as he showed an exceptional turn-of-foot from the gate, leading the field at the end of the first furlong and tacking across to the inside rail with relative ease. Both his average stride frequency (2.49 per second) and his average stride length (8.00m) peaked inside the opening quarter of a mile and in truth, he had most of the field under pressure at the halfway point. Napoleon Solo was the fastest horse over the opening furlong (11.95s), but this was much more than just a case of getting to the front and holding on. Joel Rosario was able to inject pace again as they rounded the turn, running the fastest 5th and 6th furlongs in the race as his mount pulled readily clear and a winning margin of 1.11s (6.5 lengths) certainly didn’t flatter this son of Liam’s Map. A winning time of 1:34.57 made this the fastest Champagne Stakes since Uncle Mo in 2010 and everything in the data set would confirm the visual impression that this was a top class performance. He has now booked his ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in a month’s time and if he can repeat this performance, he will be a danger to all with his early speed. 

I will add a small note regarding the runner-up, Talkin. Danny Gargan’s Colt was drawn widest of all in  stall 9 and having been 0.26s slower than Napoleon Solo over the opening furlong, he was forced to drop in behind the early pace under Kendrick Camouche. From that point onwards, he seemed unlikely to lay a glove on Napoleon Solo and he seems equally unlikely to reverse this form, but he was faster over the final 2 furlongs as he closed in 12.99 and 13.64s. He won his maiden over 7 furlongs at Saratoga in late August, a race run at a strong gallop with a finishing speed of 91%. He ranked 7th of 8 for his top speed figure that day (42.37 mph) and it was a similar story with the 43.20 mph that he clocked in the Champagne Stakes (ranked 5th of 9). The draw played a part and he will need to be faster from the gate if he is going to make his mark as a Juvenile, but with time he should continue to improve and was far from disgraced by this 2nd placed finish.