Owner Stuart Janney III knew there were better horses in the Maker's 46 Mile. None may be as resilient as his Data Link.
After Data Link's promising 3-year-old campaign was derailed by breaks in both cannon bones, the bay colt rallied from last to first in the final quarter mile to win the $300,000 Grade 1 race by a neck in a four-wide sprint to the finish on Friday at Keeneland.
''Somebody asked me, `When did you think he was going to win?' As I saw it, it looked to me like he was just enough behind that he was going to need the others to get a little tired, which I think they did,'' Janney said. ''Clearly they went fast early and we needed - as often happens - some of the better horses to get tired.''
Sent off at 12-1 odds, Data Link ran the turf mile in 1:34.31 under Alex Solis for trainer Shug McGaughey, topping reigning champion Get Stormy and favorite Turallure in a furious rally.
Data Link had won three straight races from November 2010 until last February before he sustained hairline fractures in both forelimbs breezing one morning of practice in the weeks leading up to last year's Blue Grass Stakes, one of the final major prep races of the Kentucky Derby.
''That ditched our plans for a good while,'' McGaughey said.
The horse needed surgery on legs, shelving him until October.
''We were quite hopeful when he was operated on that he'd come out of it without a problem,'' Janney said. ''That was the prognosis was that it wouldn't impair his racing.''
Still, none of his three races leading up to this race was particularly impressive. He won an allowance optional claiming race in December at Gulfstream Park between a distant fourth place finish in the Shady Character Stakes at Belmont and a third in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream last month.
''We've liked this horse for a long time, but obviously when you've run (and) you don't win a Grade 3 you've got to have a lot of confidence to step up to a Grade 1,'' Janney said. ''This was always the plan and he needed that last race down in Florida.''
It looked like the wrong decision at the start as he fell behind the pace from the start in a six-horse field that featured four graded stakes winners. Data Link began catching up in the second turn and moved outside for his stretch run.
At the same time, Doubles Partner, who beat Data Link at Gulfstream in March to win the Canadian Turf, moved to the rail from behind Get Stormy and Turallure to set up a frenetic four-wide sprint to the finish that saw Data Link winning by a neck at the line.
Turallure, which won the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile last September, finished second just as he did at the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in November.
''He had a good trip, he just got a little tired,'' said Turallure jockey Julien Leparoux, who had to remount the horse leading up to the gate after the horse got too excited before the race. ''He ran big. He came back very good (from the layoff). That was a big race for him.''
Data Link paid $27.20, $7.60 and $4. Turallure, at 7-5 odds, returned $3.20 and $2.40, while Doubles Partner paid $2.80.
''It was a good race until the top of the stretch when the other horse, Get Stormy, drifted right in front of me,'' Doubles Partner jockey Javier Castellano said. ''(That) stopped my momentum, and I lose the race.''
Three-time Grade 1 winner Get Stormy finished fourth, failing to join Kip Deville (2007-08) as the only repeat winner of the race.
''He could feel the pressure for sure,'' trainer Tom Bush said. ''I could tell he wasn't thrilled with the firm (turf) that he was on. I had my worries.''
