SARATOGA SPRINGS – The mind-bending roll trainer Kiaran McLaughlin was on at the Belmont Park spring-summer meet (43 percent winners) kept on chugging upstate yesterday when McLaughin’s Trademark split horses at the top of the stretch, then exploded toward the wire to win the Grade 2, $150,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap by 43/4 lengths. Rouvres rallied for second, with Slew Valley third.
The victory was the first in two U.S. starts for Trademark, a 7-year-old gelding who previously raced in Dubai and his native South Africa.
Trademark ran the mile-and-an-eighth in 1:49 to pay $15.20, keying a $69.50 exacta.