All of a sudden Michelle Nevin is sitting on a Breeders’ Cup contender.
Dancing Buck, which Nevin trains for J & N Stables (the 4-year-old gelding’s breeder) and Diamond M Stable, scored a convincing five-length victory in the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint at Aqueduct on Saturday. The New York-bred had never run in a graded stakes before but you wouldn’t know it by watching his performance.
Jockey Manuel Franco put Dancing Buck on the lead out of the gate, opened a comfortable advantage down the backside and increased that margin under encouragement straightening for home over a yielding course.
Dancing Buck paid $10.60 to win as the second choice among nine betting interests.
“He’s such a nice, easygoing horse,” Nevin said of Dancing Buck. “He’ll just wait on the jock to tell him what to do. I wasn’t concerned that he was going to go to the lead and go too fast; he’s very ratable.
“I’d really like that,” Nevin said of the possibility of shortening to five and one-half furlongs for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 5. “I thought he ran huge in Saratoga going five and a half [in the Lucky Coin Stakes]. He was unlucky to get nipped up there.”
Earlier on the card, Nevin got a maiden-breaking win out of Full Moon Madness, a 2-year-old homebred colt owned by Jay Em Ess Stable. Here, too, Franco gunned for the lead in this six-and-one-half furlongs sprint over a sloppy track, got it and stayed there, reaching the wire almost six lengths in front. Nevin trained the winner’s dam, By the Moon, to two Grade 1 victories in the Frizette Stakes (2014) and Ballerina Stakes (2017). Full Moon Madness paid $4.20 to win.
Nevin also got a frontrunning victory at the Meadowlands on Friday evening out of the Rooney family’s Ballydooley. The 5-year-old gelding showed the way in this grass mile at the $25,000 claiming tier and reached the wire in front by one and one-half lengths. Luis Rodriguez Castro rode the $9.60 winner.
Derek Ryan also came up a winner in New Jersey on the same Friday card when My Way Stable’s Optic Way held on under Jairo Rendon to prevail in a statebred allowance/optional claiming mile on the turf. The 7-year-old gelding is in his third tour of duty with Ryan, for whom he won his last race three years ago before beginning a 25-race win drought. Despite that, he went off the favorite here and paid $5.60 to win.
LYNCH’S FUTURITY
Saturday’s Laurel Futurity was scheduled to be run on the turf but was moved to the sloppy main track when the weather didn’t cooperate. That proved to be no problem for Congruent, a Florida shipper ridden by Fergal Lynch for Antonio Sano. The son of Tapit tracked the early pace along the rail, moved out for the stretch run, took the lead and then held off a rallier while appearing willing to go farther than the mile asked of him. He won by two and one-half lengths and paid $23.40 to win.
“He had a great trip on the rail and went on in between horses,” Lynch said. “I had to go when I did. I didn’t want to, but that gap was getting smaller, so I had to take it. It’s hard to make up ground on this track today. He’s a nice horse.”
Lynch also suggested that Congruent might be Breeders’ Cup worthy.
“I think he’s a good enough horse to go over there,” Lynch said. “If they can find a little spot for him, I wouldn’t be afraid to take him anywhere.”
The Laurel Futurity also served as a springboard for Go and Go, the 1989 winner. That race was likewise moved to the main track from the turf, yet trainer Dermot Weld did not scratch the Moyglare Stud colorbearer. The following spring, the chestnut colt, ridden by Michael Kinane, won the Belmont Stakes.
This brings us full circle back to Aqueduct for Sunday’s Grade 3 Waya Stakes. That a filly and mare turf stakes race in New York should be won by a Chad Brown trainee comes as no surprise nor that said filly or mare was bred in Ireland. Where the Waya winner, Peter Brant’s Rocky Sky, departs from convention is that she was bred by Eadling Farm, Ltd., the d/b/a for the now-retired Kinane and his wife Catherine.
Rocky Sky, Manuel Franco up, shown winning the Waya Stakes at Aqueduct. [SUSIE RAISHER]
Rocky Sky, a 4-year-old filly, was imported last year after winning races at Navan and Dundalk for Ross O’Sullivan. She then went winless in five races for Brown until Saturday. Franco had her until a strong hold until letting her loose around the final turn in this 11-furlong marathon over yielding turf. She went on with it down the lane, scoring by just over a length. She paid $9.40 to win.
Jim Corrigan sent out a pair of maiden breakers at Belterra last week. The 17th time proved to be the charm for Two Hearts Farm’s Mejthaam in Wednesday’s third race. The 4-year-old filly rallied under Abel Lezcano to win this maiden special weight mile by almost two lengths. She returned $4.40 to win.
Corrigan had to settle for half a loaf in Thursday’s sixth race, a maiden claiming mile on the main track, when his Youneverwalkalone finished on even terms with Songandastar. The duo ding-donged it down the stretch with neither giving an inch. Javier Padron Barcenas rode Corrigan’s gelding, which was making its sixth career start. The dead heat chopped the win price on the 2-1 shot to $3.60.
