Since winning his debut on June 28th at Churchill Downs, the remarkably consistent Mr. Z has competed strictly in stakes company, running at least once every month since then while winning or placing in ten of his fifteen subsequent starts. The first of those stakes performances came in the 2014 Sanford Stakes (gr. III) at Saratoga, in which Mr. Z was a longshot at nearly 12-1. But despite a bit of a rough trip, Mr. Z rallied strongly from fifth place to grab a narrow lead in the homestretch and just failed to hold off Big Trouble in the final strides. Who’d have guessed that the unheralded Sanford runner-up would go on to achieve such great heights along the Triple Crown?
Relive Mr. Z’s stakes debut by watching the replay of the race!
