ESPN Horse Racing

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- Take the Points first showed talent on dirt, and he ran creditably over the synthetic surface at Santa Anita earlier this year, but Take the Points has taken best to turf. After a third in the Virginia Derby last month, Take the Points outfought Irish shipper Black Bear Island in a sustained stretch duel to win the Grade 1, $400,000 Secretariat Stakes at steamy Arlington Park on Saturday.

Take the Points won for the third time in his career and for the first time on grass, stalking the pace of Hoosier Kingdom before the Secretariat turned into a match race between the top two. Black Bear Island, under heavy pressure from jockey John Murtagh, came out and bumped Take the Points at about the eighth pole, but Take the Points remained steadfast.

"That actually helped him," said jockey Kent Desormeaux, who won the Secretariat for the second time. "He knew he was in a fight."

The top two were much the best, with show horse Laureate Conductor more than three lengths back in third, just better than Oil Man. Winning time for Take the Points, who paid $7.40, was 2:05.41 for 1 1/4 miles on yielding turf. The time was the second-slowest in the 22 runnings of the race at 1 1/4 miles.

Take the Points, trained for the Starlight Partners by Todd Pletcher, made his way into the Triple Crown and finished 13th in the Preakness before being switched to grass. Pletcher has been tinkering with blinkers all along, but Take the Points's connections have long felt that longer distances would be better for this gray son of Even the Score.

"We thought all along that the farther this horse goes the better," said Pletcher's assistant Michael McCarthy, who saddled Take the Points.

Take the Points got excellent early position after breaking from post 7. "In two jumps he had a perfect rhythm," Desormeaux said.

McCarthy told Desormeaux not to expect instant acceleration from Take the Points, so Desormeaux started creeping up all the way around the far turn. When Black Bear Island cut, Desormeaux was ready, and Take the Points was able to wear down Black Bear Island, who stayed on gamely.

"Two [furlongs] out I thought I had it," Murtagh said.

Black Bear Island, purchased before this race, is headed to the barn of Julio Canani on the West Coast. Plans for Take the Points have yet to be determined, McCarthy said.