Fort Washington Repeats in Dinner Party Stakes

Fort Washington delivered a brilliant encore performance to take the $247,500 Dinner Party Stakes (G3T) May 16 at Laurel Park under a perfectly timed ride by Junior Alvarado. The 7-year-old son of War Front, trained by Claude "Shug" McGaughey III, became the first horse in 100 years to win back-to-back runnings of the race, according to Maryland Jockey Club publicity. The only other back-to-back winner in the 125-year history of the race is Hall of Famer Sarazen, who took the race in 1925-26. "It's pretty special," Alvarado said of the win. "I love to be a part of that history, and we have such a special horse, too." Fort Washington broke alertly, settling in behind the front-running Harrow and the favorite Cruise the Nile through opening fractions of :24.53 and :49.19. "He was a little closer than he normally is, but the pace was a little slow, so I was very happy to be in the position I was," Alvarado said. Cruise the Nile took the lead at the three-eighths pole, and looked like he was going to kick clear of the field, but Fort Washington revved up on the outside, and came head-to-head with Cruise the Nile coming down the stretch. Holding off a late closing run from A Bourbon for Toby, Fort Washington dug in deep to secure a three-quarter-length win in the 1 1/8-mile race over firm turf. The final time was 1:47.15. "Right when we turned for home, he switched leads to the right, he started picking it up very nicely, and finished up very strong," Alvarado said. A Bourbon for Toby was second and Cruise the Nile finished third. Alvarado said he was never worried they would catch Fort Washington, knowing his rivals would only drive Fort Washington's competitive spirit. "He is an old pro," he said. "He keeps showing up. Hopefully, he stays sound. He seems like a horse who is pretty happy and likes doing his job." Reeve McGaughey, assistant trainer to Shug McGaughey, was very impressed with Fort Washington's effort. The McGaughey trainee entered the race off a fourth-place finish in the Feb. 28 Canadian Turf Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park. "We mainly just were worried about the 3 (Cruise the Nile), we didn't want to let him get too far away," Reeve said. "I was pretty comfortable down the backside, and we figured we could wear him down as long as we were close enough to him. He ran really well today. "Junior brought it to perfection there. Everything was exactly the way we would have wanted it." Fort Washington paid $7.80 to win. The son of War Front was bred in Kentucky by Joseph Allen and White Birch Farm. He improved his record to 8-3-8 from 32 career starts, and earnings exceeding $1.56 million. He achieved an elusive grade 1 win in last year's Arlington Million Stakes (G1T).