Photo credit Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club

When Jack O Liam left New York in March, the 3-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky was a maiden. A veteran of six races in which he’d never been better than third, he started his career in the barn of Gary Contessa, who shipped him south to run at Laurel after a string of New York futility.

Contessa got the win in Maryland, but he lost the horse.

Claimed that day for $40,000 by Kieron Magee, Jack O Liam won next out at Pimlico and picked up another win at Delaware Park earlier this month.

On Sunday, Aug. 23, Jack O Liam came back to New York for the first time since being claimed, and he made his Spa debut a winning one, holding on for a nose victory in the fourth race.

It was also trainer Magee’s first trip to Saratoga, and like Contessa a few months before, he got the win but lost the horse, who was claimed by Steve Klesaris.

“I expected it,” said Magee of both the win and the claim. “He was going into the race great. If he’d gotten beaten by a nose, [getting claimed] would have been worse.”

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