The instructions from trainer Mark Casse to jockey Jose Ortiz were simple.
Breaking from the rail with the impressive maiden winner Ewing, Casse wanted Ortiz to nurse the 2-year-old son of Knicks Go out of the gate and let him settle.
The plan was sound but Ewing rejected it.
Though Ewing broke last in the field of four, he quickly motored to the front, passing 2-5 favorite Obliteration, and then turned the $186,000 Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) into a slam dunk as he swatted away a stretch bid from Obliteration to score by a length on the Aug. 2 Whitney Stakes (G1) undercard at Saratoga Race Course.
"We wanted to try to get him to settle," Casse said. "But Jose said that after three strides he took off. He said, 'He is fast!'"
Owned by D. J. Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and Kenneth Freirich, with social media influencer Griffin Johnson part of the West Point group, the colt named after New York Knicks Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing followed up a 12-length win in a July 5 maiden race by covering the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.03 as the 8-5 ($5.40) second choice.
"Ewing loves to run and he's done a fantastic job at it," said the 26-year-old Johnson who has roughly 15 million social media followers. "I think he's going to continue to prove himself."
The graded stakes for 2-year-olds was basically a match race between Ewing and Leland Ackerley Racing's Obliteration, who were 1-2 at each call.
After Ewing led by 1 1/2 lengths after an opening quarter-mile in :22.26, Obliteration and jockey Flavien Prat moved alongside him as they reached the quarter pole.
"From the three-eighths pole to the wire I knew it was a match race, so I let my horse go," Ortiz said.
Both horses raced wide into the stretch as the favorite lost some ground while running six wide.
That allowed Ewing to dribble down the lane for a two-length lead at the eighth pole which gave him enough of a cushion to reach the wire first.
"Our horse got tired and is going to improve a lot from that," Casse said. "I want him to go farther, but what I want and what I get are sometimes different. I'm proud of him today. He showed a lot of guts."
Casse said he'll likely run West Point's Curtain Call in the Sept. 1 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at the Spa and reserve Ewing for the Sept. 13 Iroquois Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.
Obliteration, a Violence colt who won the Sanford Stakes (G3) by 10 1/2 lengths for trainer Steve Asmussen, was 12 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Camigol.
"As soon as I got to the turn, he drifted out and I couldn't get him into a straight path," Prat said.
Ewing was bred by John Gardiner out of the Indian Charlie mare Sassy Ali Joy and is her seventh and most recent foal and lone stakes winner. He was purchased for $585,000 from the Hidden Brook consignment at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
With the victory, Ewing became the first black-type winner for freshman sire Knicks Go. The 2021 Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male has four winners in his first crop and is the lone freshman sire with a graded stakes winner through Aug. 2. Knicks Go stood the 2025 breeding season at Taylor Made Stallions near Nicholasville, Ky., for $12,500.
