The David L. “Zeke” Ferguson grade III hurdle stakes race could quite possibly be the slowest race Paradise’s Boss has ever won. Next to his name in the racing comments they can put “won dawdling” instead of “won driving.”

Ridden by Xavier Aizpuru, who swears he’s an English jockey despite the Basque nature of his name, the bay gelding won the 21/4-mile Zeke by more than five lengths in a wire-to-wire effort over the Colonial Downs’ turf course in New Kent, Va.

Aizpuru’s previous ride on Paradise’s Boss, owned by Ann and Henry Stern, was also a winning one. In June, he guided the gelding to a stunning upset victory in the $150,000 Meadow Brook grade I novice hurdle stakes (N.Y.). In that race, in a change of tactics, Aizpuru held the gelding up and rated him instead of letting him make the pace as he had in three previous losing efforts.

The plan worked to a tee so there was no reason to think up any other strategy for the Zeke. Or so Aizpuru and trainer Jack Fisher thought. With stakes winners like McDynamo (Robert Massey), Praise The Prince (Clayton Chipperfield), Anofferucantrefuse (Cyril Murphy), and Understood (David Bentley) in the field, all horses who thrive running off a strong pace, it was a tricky race to strategize for because there was no clear cut speed.

There’s a famous racing cartoon depicting trainers delivering instructions to their jockeys pre-race. Each trainer whispers conspiratorially to their jock, “Now I want you to hold him up until the turn for home, then make your move and let him go.” So went the thinking in the Zeke. When the flag dropped nobody wanted to go to the front. Nobody wanted to set the race up for the horses behind them to come charging by.

So Aizpuru, thinking on his feet, took charge. He went to the lead and then promptly slowed the pace to an almost unreasonable crawl.

“I thought if they were going to force me to be the speed then I was going to go as slow as I could humanely make my horse go,” he said. “It was a bit of an improvised back-up plan.”

So slowly, very slowly, the horses made their way around the Colonial Downs oval. Spectators wandered off and bought a hot dog and a coke, came back to the rail, and the horses were still racing. Aizpuru dillied, he dallied and he dawdled and he lulled his competitors to sleep. The race was more than 20 seconds off the time of the maiden hurdle two races earlier. As the four jockeys behind him struggled to rate their mounts and settle them behind the slow pace, Paradise’s Boss cantered along, not wasting a speck of energy.

When they came around the far turn to run down the backside for the last time, Chipperfield had had enough and went to Paradise’s Boss as they jumped the first hurdle down the backside.

“I saw Clayton coming and thought it was as good a time to go as any,” said Aizpuru. “We had been going so slow for so long that I didn’t want them to all come to me at once. I wanted to make them work if they were going to catch me, so I put my hands down and I never saw any of them again. Frankly I was surprised. I still thought I’d get a challenge from someone, considering the quality of the horses behind me.”

With a quarter mile to go McDynamo, the heavy favorite, tried to run the winner down. He passed a now tiring Praise The Prince, who was making his first hurdle start after a long layoff due to injury. McDynamo then passed Understood who had made a mild move before flattening out, but it was to no avail. Paradise’s Boss just skipped along, unpressured and unhurried, into the winners circle.

This was Paradise’s Boss’ first foray into open stakes company after graduating from the novice ranks with the Meadow Brook win. A son of Texas-based sire Thats Our Buck, this was Paradise’s Boss’ sixth hurdle win after being purchased out of Monmouth Park (N.J.) late in 2003.