Jockey Richard Migliore implored Sharp Impact for everything he had to hold off second-place Hidden Truth and win the $150,000 Lexington (gr. III) at Belmont on Sunday. The front-running victor paid $10 to win the 1 1/4-mile turf race for 3-year-old colts and geldings in 2:02 3/5. The Lexington victory was worth $90,000 for Mohammed bin Al Maktoum. "He handled the turf real well," Migliore said. "The first half of the race set things up nicely. He was going along real comfortably."Sharp Impact went to the lead from the outside No. 7 post position and set moderate fractions of :24 3/5, :50 1/5 and 1:14 4/5. On the turn for home, Urban King and Deputy Lad appeared ready to pounce on the leader, but Migliore loosened the reigns and Sharp Impact spurted away. Hidden Truth made a late run in the stretch, but could not pass the winner. Said Migliore: "By the half-mile pole I knew I could stretch the field out some. He just kept throwing :24 quarters at them. He has a real good turn of foot and just marched on."Sharp Impact -- a 3-year-old dark bay colt by Siphon (out of Fast and Early (Carson City) -- added the Lexington victory to his June 8 front-running victory in a 1 1/8-mile allowance race over a muddy Belmont track. He is now 4-0-0 from six starts with earnings of $183,600. "Everything went right," McLaughlin said. "The grass was a question mark, but all of these Siphons' seem to move up on turf. I was a little worried about the distance, but he was able to set comfortable fractions. It's nice getting our first stakes win of the meet."
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin continued his successful meeting. He is now in second to Todd Pletcher (34 wins) with a record of 18-7-1 from 39 starts. (Richard Dutrow has 18 wins from 72 starts.)Edgar Prado rode beaten-favorite and third-place finisher Urban King: "He laid close to the leader and was in a good spot the whole way. He just didn't have any kick at the end."(Chart, Equibase)