Long shot Doppelganger rallies late to upset the Carter Handicap

When Doppelganger rallied from behind to win the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap on Saturday, he became the third horse on the day to win the longest shot in a race. Doppelganger shipped up to Aqueduct from Laurel Park with two wins in a row since joining the barn of trainer Brittany Russell.

Sent off at odds of 17-1 the son of Into Mischief had won a pair of allowance races going two turns at Laurel following a layoff from July when he was racing in California for Bob Baffert. Last year Doppelganger was graded stakes-placed twice with a second in the San Felipe (G2) on the Kentucky Derby trail.

"The fact that we were able to run him in the 'a other than' allowance and then he comes back in the 'two other than' - this horse thinks he's on top of the world,” explained Russell. “He doesn't know what races he won in when he won at Laurel. He's just had a lot of confidence and trained well. I've been getting feedback in the morning from everyone that he's getting better and today it showed."

The Carter drew a field of seven from the handicap division that included the 4-5 favorite Repo Rocks who had won his last four starts that were all in stakes races and the 3-1 second choice Today’s Flavorwho had also won four races in a row.

 The early pace in the race was fast as Today’s Flavor, Expressman and Little Vic were spread across the track and went 22.4 and 44.84 for the first two fractions. Doppelganger and jockey Jevian Toledo were content to sit seven-lengths behind the leaders in fifth position. Six furlongs was timed in 1:09.78 and the Maryland invader was still in fifth although only three-lengths behind.

Toledo moved Doppleganger five-wide into the stretch as he began to pass the tiring pacesetters. With 70 yards remaining he had gotten to the top three and went by them to finish 1 1/4 lengths in front. Repo Rocks was also rallying but had to settle for second just a nose in front of Expressman who dropped off the pace and rallied again.

“I know he wants to go further, but there was a lot of speed in the race and that helped,” said Toledo. “He’s a good horse. He does whatever you want. Whatever you ask him, he’ll do it. He had been running against less company at Laurel. But from the beginning, they thought he could run against nice horses and he proved that he could do it today.”

For the win Doppelganger earned $165,000 for the ownership group headed by SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables which pushed his career earnings to $442,400. For the bettors, he paid $37.60, $7.80, $4.40 across the board and triggered a $1 exacta of $29.25 with the heavy favorite and a 50 cent trifecta that was worth $82.25.