Commonwealth Cup (Grade 1)

WHEEL a nine-year-old gelding back in seven days, try a Grade 1 stakes, add a 56-year-old jockey and go to the front. Hey, you never know.

Fresh off a second in a handicap hurdle at Foxfield, Irish-bred Cool Jet tried his first Grade 1 stakes race in the Commonwealth Cup at the Virginia Gold Cup in The Plains, Virginia last Saturday.

Bernie Dalton, aboard for the first time, was told to go forward in the two-mile, one-furlong stakes contest. Cool Jet did the rest, doling and dealing, loping and leaping to a dominant seven and a quarter-length win over Irish-bred Noble Anthem and British-bred Too Friendly.

“Jump off, let him roll and if they give you a soft lead, take it. Down at the start, it was like, ‘Anybody going lads? They’re all like, ‘I want to be handy. I want to be handy.’ I said, ‘I’m going.’ After I jumped the second, everybody let me have the lead and I basically walked the dog from there,” Dalton said. “I let the horse dictate. He jumped from fence to fence. When you’re a bit older, you appreciate things a lot more. To get a spare ride, and a good spare ride, in a Grade 1, man, I’m over the moon.”

Bred by Deirdre McGrath, Cool Jet was purchased for €26,000 by Gerry Hogan Bloodstock at Goffs NH December Sale in 2016 and came back to fetch €45,000 from Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins in the Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale in 2019.

The son of Jet Away won a bumper in four tries for Mullins before transferring to Pat Boyle and Brian Ellison in England. After three losses by a combined 118 lengths and without a lot of options, Boyle teamed up with Riverdee Stable and Hall of Famer Jack Fisher in the US in 2022.

Cool Jet won three out of his first six starts, including two novice stakes before a fall in the Temple Gwathmey in April 2024. The Commonwealth snapped a four-race losing streak and increased his earnings to $255,234.