No Nay Mets cruises to victory in Sunday’s Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park

By Tom Luicci —-

FAVORED NO NAY METS CRUISES TO 5½-LENGTH VICTORY

OCEANPORT, N.J. – No Nay Mets further stamped himself as a 2-year-old turf sprinter with Breeders’ Cup potential, returning from a disappointing showing at Ascot by easily putting away 11 rivals as he cruised to a 5½-length victory in Sunday’s $112,000 Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Owned in part by Houston Astros’ All-Star Alex Bregman, along with WEBD, the son of No Nay Never became a two-time stakes winner in just his third career start.

He won the Royal Palms Juvenile at five furlongs on the turf at Gulfstream Park in his career debut on May 13, earning a spot in the Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes during the prestigious Royal Ascot meet.

The bounce-back from that ninth-place showing in England 38 days later was eye catching.

“He impressed me today. I thought he won the right way,” said trainer George Weaver. “I can’t be any happier with the horse. We went back to the tactics that were successful at Gulfstream. (Jockey) Paco (Lopez)asked him to run away from there. He had enough speed to make the lead and then on the turn he spurted for home and opened up.

“We’re going to try to put him on a path to get to the Breeders’ Cup.”

Lopez made the lead without much pressure, cruising to a :22.49 opening quarter and :46.15 first half as No Nay Mets seemed to get stronger in the lane.

The final time for the five furlongs over a firm turf course was :57.91.

“It’s really hard to decipher when you’re handicapping a race,” said Weaver. “It was a full field today with a bunch of horses that showed good early gas. You never know where you stand.

“Our horse definitely had some seasoning. He never ran in a maiden race, he broke his maiden in a stakes and then he went across the pond to run against a huge field at Ascot against some very good horses over ground he wasn’t crazy about. He had an experience edge. It didn’t take him long to get back on track.

The victory gave Weaver a sweep of the weekend 2-year-old turf sprints at Monmouth Park, with Amidst Waves winning Saturday’s Colleen Stakes.

Ship Cadet rallied for second, two lengths ahead of Shea D World.

“The plan was just to go and to see if they could catch me,” said Lopez. “George Weaver told me `your horse is very fast. They have to catch you.’ She broke sharp and then it seemed like she was waiting on horses a little. I went a pretty easy pace once she made an easy lead. The horse was very comfortable the whole time.

“This horse has a lot of potential. I can see this horse winning a grade stakes race soon.”

No Nay Mets was bred in Ireland by Coolmore.

He paid $3.80 to win as the 9-10 favorite,