Old Harbor cruises to easy victory in John Hettinger

Reaffirming her fondness for the local turf courses, Old Harbor dueled Freudie Anne into defeat by the quarter pole and widened with every stride through the stretch to win Sunday’s $125,000 John Hettinger Stakes in blowout fashion.

Coming off a runner-up finish in the Yaddo stakes when close to an enervating pace, Old Harbor ($8.70) got a more comfortable tempo laying just off Freudie Anne through modest fractions of 25.02 seconds, 49.71, and 1:13.18 this time. Given her cue approaching the stretch by Elvis Trujillo, Old Harbor spurted away suddenly and ran up the score late to win the 1 1/8-mile race on the inner turf in the stakes-record time of 1:47.95. That was 1.18 seconds faster than Kharafa’s winning time in the Ashley T. Cole earlier on Sunday’s card. The old stakes mark of 1:48.05 was set by You Go West Girl in the inaugural 2009 running.

The Tea Cups was far back in second as the 2-1 favorite, followed by Selenite in third, Unbelievable Dream in fourth, and a spent Freudie Anne, who suffered her first loss on grass. “The speed went [to the front], I sat down behind, and I could feel that the pace was really slow,” said Trujillo, who also captured Saturday’s grassy Noble Damsel on Recepta. “Turning for home, I asked, and the horse kicked. I could see the TV and saw nobody was coming, and my horse wasn’t stopping.” Old Harbor upped her record to 4-1-2 from eight starts on Belmont turf and earned $75,000 for breeder-owner Joseph Birnbaum and Monmouth-based trainer Russell Cash. “Every time she comes up here, she gives her all,” said assistant trainer Miguel Santiago. “Her performance speaks for itself. She seems to have a liking for this turf course.”