Cleveland Sound became WPT’s first juvenile winner of 2014 with a professional score at Delaware Park on Thursday. A son of More Than Ready out of the Horse Chestnut mare Twilight Service, Cleveland Sound is named for FM station 87.7 owned by WPT Partners Tom Wilson and Misty Gonzalez. He was purchased by Terry Finley and the WPT buying team at the 2013 Saratoga yearling sale.

Cleveland Sound became WPT’s first juvenile winner of 2014 with a professional score at Delaware Park on Thursday. A son of More Than Ready out of the Horse Chestnut mare Twilight Service, Cleveland Sound is named for FM station 87.7 owned by WPT Partners Tom Wilson and Misty Gonzalez. He was purchased by Terry Finley and the WPT buying team at the 2013 Saratoga yearling sale.

The win came as a bit of a surprise to trainer Graham Motion and West Point Partners. This is a big, rangy colt who hadn’t given this indication that he had enough early zip to be ultra competitive going five eighths of a mile. The plan was to use this race simply to get experience under the colt’s belt before heading up to Saratoga and stretching out.

After breaking a step slow, Cleveland Sound willingly came up the rail and vied for the lead under Angel Serpa. He was challenged on the turn before digging in down the stretch and prevailing by a length and a quarter.

“It’s always tough for a two-year-old, especially a first time starter to break from the one hole going five eighths,” said Motion. “This horse is so laid back and I didn’t expect him to show this much speed today. I think he’ll be even better around two turns.”

“Win, lose, or draw it’s exciting to get a two-year-old’s career started,” said WPT CMO Dawn Lenert. “We weren’t expecting a W right off the bat with this horse, but he exceeded expectations and made his Partners very happy. He acted like an older horse today,nothing rattles him.”