SARATOGA SPRINGS — With 16 partners, their family and friends, it was easy to spot the connections of Macho Again in the paddock before Sunday’s Jim Dandy Stakes.

It was even easier after the race. They were the ones standing — and screaming — in the winner’s circle.

Macho Again battled his way to the front in midstretch, and held off a strong late challenge from favored Pyro to win the Grade II $500,000 Jim Dandy by a half-length before a giveaway-inflated crowd of 38,748 at Saratoga Race Course.

Winner of the Derby Trial who ran second in the Preakness and fifth in the Belmont Stakes, Macho Again ($18.40) ran 11⁄8 miles in 1:51.16 for his first graded stakes victory.

It was also the first for Roger and Joyce Locks of Saratoga Springs, part of the ownership group through the West Point Thoroughbreds syndicate. Roger, an accountant, and Joyce, an interior designer, live three houses from the racetrack.

“I can’t explain the feeling right now,” Joyce Locks said. “I’m just welled up with everything anyone could ever want. It’s amazing. This is my hometown. I have all my family and friends here, and I am just on a high that I can’t tell you.”

The Locks’ hosted a West Point gathering at their home Saturday night, which turned out to be pre-victory party.

“We had a big porch party, and everybody was there,” Roger Locks said. “We all felt very confident. We were very pleased with the reports that we were getting concerning how well he was doing. This is the only horse we’ve ever owned. He’s one in a million.”

Trained by Dallas Stewart,

Macho Again broke on the outside of the seven-horse field, lunging at the start. Jockey Julien Leparoux saved ground for six furlongs, then moved out midway on the far turn.

Leparoux had to wait for room as Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara began to fade after setting a pace of :23.51 and :46.94 in a duel with fellow frontrunner Mint Lane.

Macho Again picked off Tiz Now Tiz Then in the stretch, took the lead at the eighth pole and dug in to the wire.

“He had a tough go of it from the quarter pole on, I thought,” winning trainer Dallas Stewart said. “Once he got free, he kicked on, and it looked like he was going to win very convincingly, and he came Pyro with that late run. He’s a very good horse, as you know, and we were able to sustain that run.”

Leparoux was replaced by Garrett Gomez in the Belmont, but was aboard in both the Preakness and Derby Trial, as well as an allowance victory in February at Fair Grounds.

“He’s not much different. He hasn’t changed too much,” Lep­aroux said. “He is still just a game horse. He tries all the time. I had to go inside in the stretch, and he finished very good.”

Saratoga’s hometown prep for the $1 million Travers on Aug. 23, the Jim Dandy was the seventh start this year for Macho Again, and first since the 11⁄2-mile Belmont June 7.

“He’s so tough. He stepped up in the Preakness, and he ran great in the Belmont,” Stewart said. “He ran to the quarter pole, and just had enough. We gave him some time off, and only worked him two or three times real easy. He’s a very nice horse. He’s not very big, but he’s got that heart.”

It was the second stakes victory of the meet in as many days for Leparoux, who won the Grade I Diana aboard Forever Together on Saturday.

For Stewart, it was his first stakes win ever at Saratoga. A former assistant to Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, he went out on his own in 1997.

“This is great,” he said. “I feel great. I feel blessed to be able to train for some wonderful people, and this is a wonderful horse. It’s a great day.”

A leading Kentucky Derby cand­idate this winter, Pyro got pinched back at the start and ran near the back of the back, at one time trailing by more than 10 lengths. He began to move up on the outside leaving the backstretch, and made a steady determined run, but couldn’t catch the winner.

“We finished second,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “There’s nothing more I can say. Go talk to the winner.”

Tiz Now Tiz Then was third,

41⁄2 lengths in front of Grade I winner Tale of Ekati, who was followed to the wire by Anak Nakal, Mint Lane and Da’ Tara, who was last by 233⁄4 lengths.

“That was a suicide mission. It didn’t work,” said Nick Zito, who trains Da’ Tara. “I don’t know what that was all about.”

Stewart said Macho Again will definitely be pointed to the Travers, the centerpiece of the Saratoga season.

“I just knew he was going to win,” Joyce Locks said. “He was fresh, he was ready, he was breezing well, and I knew it was his time. I also know there’s another time maybe coming up, too.”