Outfinishing his rivals after jumping the final fence, Bruton Street-US's Proven Innocent drew clear under Freddie Procter to win the $150,000 Beverly R. Steinman Hurdle Handicap (NSA-1) by three-quarters of a length June 4 at Saratoga Race Course.
The Jack Fisher trainee paid $11.60 to win in the kickoff race of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. Running 2 3/8 miles over jumps on firm ground, he finished in a final time of 4:39.20 according to the official Equibase chart which noted the race was hand timed.
Evie's Prince ran second and Awakened, another Fisher trainee, was third in the seven-horse field.
"I thought at the end of the stretch it was going to be Awakened, but he faded, so it was 'Come on Proven! Come on Proven! Get up!'" Fisher said. "He got up, so that was good.
"He won here in 2022. That was back when he was a novice horse. He is lucky that Snap Decision and those horses weren't here, but they would've carried so much weight."
Bruton Street-US also owns and Fisher trains 11-year-old Snap Decision, last year's Eclipse Award champion steeplechase horse. Horses age 10 and up are ineligible to race at New York Racing Association tracks.
"At the end of the day, (Proven Innocent) is a really good jumper and what you saw happen, I think, is the benefit of a Thoroughbred that's really well bred, because after that last fence you've got a half a mile to get there," said Mike Hankin, racing manager for Bruton Street-US. "At that point, it's a flat race. He just dug in and galloped. Awakened is a very good horse, but Proven (Innocent), I was really proud of him. It was very quick at the beginning and at the end he just dug in and galloped like a racehorse should."
Carloun, who ran off to a commanding early lead, fell upon landing after one of the initial fences, unseating jockey Paddy O'Hanlon. Horse and rider appeared to escape injury, and the horses trailing them at that stage were angled by their jockeys around them.
The winner, bred by Stuart S. Janney III in Kentucky, is a 7-year-old gray and/or roan gelding by Blame out of the stakes-placed A. P. Indy mare Meghan's Joy. Proven Innocent is a half sibling to six stakes winners in flat races, five of them at the graded level.
