Kupuna made every pole a winning one while fending off the late charge of Pass the Hat to win the Listed $200,000 Bernard Baruch by a nose at Saratoga Race Course on Thursday, Sept. 3.
Trained by Norm Casse and piloted by Ricardo Santana Jr., the seven-year-old Hard Spun gelding returned from a more than six-month layoff to get the victory after a solid string of five works at Saratoga. Earlier this year, Kupuna won the Listed Col. E.R. Bradley Stakes at Fair Grounds.
Kupuna, who usually races from off-the-pace, was hustled from post 2 by Santana and showed the way through an opening quarter-mile in :24.20 over the good going with Pass the Hat to his outside in second. Kupuna maintained his position down the backstretch with Pass the Hat and an advancing Running Bee stalking on the outside in third followed by G1 winner Salamis racing to the inside of Uncle’s Gold.
Uncle’s Gold made a wide bid late in the turn as Kupuna came off the rail with a host of pursuers chasing, including the game Pass the Hat and an inside rush from Risk Tolerance. There would be no denying Kupuna, however, who continued to drift out but won the head bob over an unlucky Pass the Hat.
Kupuna was bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings and Greg Biagi and is out of the winning Malibu Moon mare, Hanalei Hailey. Second dam is the multiple Stakes winner Miz United States, who has also produced multiple Stakes winner Exaggerated, and Graded Stakes-placed Scampering.
Kupuna is one of seven Stakes winners this year for his sire, Hard Spun, who is also represented by Graded Stakes winners Built (G2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt), Gas Me Up (G2 King Edward), Moon Spun (G2 Unbridled Sydney S.), Bold Journey (G3 Tom Fool), and Runaway Again (G3 Dominion Day S.).
