Goldeneye captures second-straight win despite rough start

He was shaken, not stirred.

Kenny McPeek’s Goldeneye had a spectacular Saratoga showing yesterday, winning the second race at 9-2 odds despite stumbling terribly out of the gate.

With Jose Ortiz aboard, Goldeneye immediately found himself at the back of the pack as Prevent took an early length-and-a-half lead. Goldeneye was seven lengths off the pace, but incrementally inched his way forward, rejoining his four competitors as they entered the stretch. From there, he turned on the juice on the outside and sprang past the leader Wolfie’s Dynaghost to secure the victory with a final time of 1:54.36.

“We’ve been fortunate that the conditions have really suited him the last two races,” trainer McPeek told FOX Sports analyst Maggie Wolfendale. “Now we’re going to really ask him what he’s made of in the next few. But we’re just really proud of him. He came to us, we didn’t know a lot about him. We seem to have figured him out pretty quickly here. [He’s] a horse that I think there’s more limit to him. I think we can go on up from here.”

McPeek also praised Ortiz for not panicking after Goldeneye’s rough start.

Prior to the race, Wolfendale had described Goldeneye as “calm, cool, collected; he’s like a laid-back California dude.”

It appears the dude abides.

Goldeneye secured Horse Racing Nation’s second-highest speed figure on Aug. 1 with a score of 127 in his 1 3/16-mile turf allowance optional claimer. The win at Saratoga was the sixth of his career in 28 starts. It was also his second consecutive win after he captured another allowance victory at Colonial Downs on July 12. His career earnings currently stand at $426,855.

The six-year-old bay gelding is owned by David Bernsen, LLC and John D. Stuart.