Messier scored a redemptive victory to give jockey Jose Gomez his first career graded stakes victory in Friday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Westchester at Belmont at the Big A.
The Westchester win marked Messier’s third career Grade 3 victory, adding to scores in the 2021 Bob Hope at Del Mar and 2022 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita Park when in the care of Hall of Fame conditioner Bob Baffert. Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm, the $470,000 purchase at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase is out of the multiple stakes-winning Smart Strike mare Checkered Past, with his third dam being 2000 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Catch the Ring.
Owned by SF Racing, Madaket Stables, Lansdon Robbins, III, Tom Ryan, Robert Masterson, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Golconda Stable and Siena Farm, the multiple graded stakes-winning son of Empire Maker crossed the wire first under Gomez last out in the local nine-furlong Listed Excelsior on March 30, but was disqualified and placed second behind Laughing Boy for interference in the stretch.