12/13/19
Rich stakes for 2-year-olds tops Big A card
By NY Hot List Staff
As much as the 2019 graded stakes have come and gone in New York, that doesn’t mean the days of stakes with sizeable purses are over.
Saturday and Sunday’s cards at Aqueduct each feature a $500,000 New York Stallion Series stakes for 2-year-olds bred in New York that will net the winning connections more than $250,000 in purse money.
The featured race on Saturday is a Great White Way division stakes at seven furlongs for colts and it attracted a bulky field of 14.
The favorite is Dream Bigger, who is the 5-2 favorite off a record of two wins and two seconds in four career starts for trainer Rudy Rodriguez and owner Mike Repole. His last two starts produced the two wins, both in stakes for New York State-breds. After posting a 10 ¾-length victory in the New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes as a maiden, he scored by 1 ¼ lengths in the Notebook stakes at Aqueduct, also at six furlongs, in his most recent start.
“This was our main goal and so far he’s coming into the race really well. He had a good breeze,” Rodriguez said. “We’re hoping for big things, but New York has such a good program. We’re trying to keep him against New York-breds and run for as much money as we can. If things happen and he starts getting better, we can throw him into deeper water.
“We definitely want to point to some spots outside of New York-breds as well, but we have to get this race out of the way, see how he comes out of it and talk to the owner and see if he wants to freshen him up a little bit. There’s good racing for him coming up. He’s a strong, young horse and they paid a large amount of money for him so hopefully he runs well.”
Captain Bombastic stands as the 7-2 second choice in the Great White Way stakes. Trained by Jeremiah Englehart, the promising 2-year-old colt is 2-for-2 in his career, taking the Sleepy Hollow Stakes for state-breds at a mile after breaking his maiden in his first start.
Englehart also trains Moonachie for the August Dawn Farm of Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells. After winning his debut by 10 lengths, Moonachie will try to get back on the winning track following a fourth in the Bertram Bongard and then a seventh behind Dream Bigger in the Notebook.
Giant Shoes comes into the race off a sharp debut victory, taking a maiden race that was washed off the turf and switched to the main track by 3 ¾ lengths.
Bank on Shea, trained by Jason Servis, notched a debut victory and then ran third in the Notebook, six lengths behind Dream Bigger.
The race also features Hold My Cell, Colormepazzi, Brunate, Big Package, Turbo Drive, Kierkegaard, It’s a Risk, Chowda and Tercero.
Sunday’s feature at Aqueduct is the Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series for 2-year-old fillies, which attracted a field of 11.
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