It's easy to look back and wonder about "what if?"
Yet there are times when a bright future can outweigh all of that.
The 3-year-old colt Locked surely fits nicely into that mold.
After he won the $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap (G2) Dec. 7 at Aqueduct Racetrack, it was inevitable that thoughts would turn to what could have been.
If not for an unusual knee ligament issue that kept him away from the races for nearly a year, the grade 1 winner at 2 might have been a major player in this year's 3-year-old classics.
"It was unfortunate timing because the way some of the Triple Crown races set up this year, it would have suited him very well," trainer Todd Pletcher said about the colt owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm.
Yet as much as there might be disappointment attached to the past, after beating older rivals and drawing off in the stretch to a 1 1/2-length win in a race as prestigious as the Cigar Mile, there's the very satisfying consolation present of having a top threat in the Jan. 25 $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Park or the Feb. 22 $20 million Saudi Cup (G1) in Saudi Arabia.
"Right now, we're thinking about the Pegasus but the $20 million is hanging out there," said Aron Wellman, president and founder of Eclipse. "It's something we have to keep on our radar."
Considering what happened to Locked, just getting him back to the races involved tons of good fortune.
"I'd be lying if I said we weren't devastated that we had to take him off the Kentucky Derby trail," Wellman said. "But looking back on the injury and the uniqueness of it, we feel very fortunate to be in this position to showcase him again.
"We had numerous vets from all over the world look at it, and thanks to modern technology, we were able to diagnose it. He had a rare strain of a ligament behind his knee that was really difficult to detect, and it wasn't that obvious. So, credit to Todd and his team for catching it at a point that was early enough. It was the morning of the Fountain of Youth that Todd wasn't 100% happy with him. If not for Todd's meticulous nature and his team, I don't know if Locked would be able to showcase himself the way he is."
A winner of the Breeders' Futurity (G1) at 2, the son of Gun Runner was third in the 2023 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) and then due to the knee injury did not race again until he captured an Oct. 19 allowance optional claimer at Aqueduct that convinced his connections to point for the Cigar.
Siena Farm and WinStar Farm's Mullikin, who was third as the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), was third early on through a :45.30 half-mile and then surged to the lead in midstretch, bidding for jockey Flavien Prat's record-breaking 56th graded stakes win of the year.
But it was not to be as John Velazquez and Locked rallied from sixth and powered by him nearing the sixteenth pole to cover the mile in 1:34.52 and extend Pletcher's record number of Cigar wins to seven.
"I think we've been fortunate enough to have some healthy horses at this time of the year and some good milers to be able to run," Pletcher said.
For Velazquez, the 2-1 favorite ($6.30) accounted for a record-matching fifth Cigar win and three victories in a row in what had been a grade 1 stakes until last year.
"To win a race like the Cigar puts an exclamation point on what's been, unfortunately, a brief but brilliant career," Wellman said. "It's also unfortunate that the Cigar is not a grade 1 and I think we'd all agree in prestige it's a grade 1 race and it was a grade 1 field today without question. Hopefully, the powers that be will reconsider and reinstate its grade 1 status."
Mullikin, a son of Violence trained by Rodolphe Brisset, was second by a length over the rallying Post Time, a son of Frosted owned by Hillwood Stable and trained by Brittany Russell.
Locked, bred by Rosa Colasanti out of the Malibu Moon mare Luna Rosa, was bought for $425,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Eaton Sales consignment and has earned $935,650. He is her second offspring to race and the lone stakes winner. Luna Rosa also has a yearling Tiz the Law filly and a 2024 Early Voting colt.
