Aqueduct Racetrack Notes

NYRA PRESS OFFICE —-

Aqueduct Racetrack Notes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Chester Broman, Sr.’s homebred Sand Devil was tested more than ever before but improved to 3-for-3 while securing his first stakes victory in Saturday’s $125,000 Damon Runyon, a seven-furlong sprint for New York-bred sophomores, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Linda Rice, the Violence chestnut was tracked by stakes-placed National Identity as he led through mild splits of 24.52 seconds and 48.58 on the fast dirt, with that rival putting a head in front after three quarters in 1:12.39.

Sand Devil dug deep under regular rider Jose Lezcano, fighting back to win by a neck in a final time of 1:24.66, which earned a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure. That number is higher than his two local state-bred romps – a 90 when winning by 12 1/2 lengths in a one-turn mile optional claimer on January 2 and an 82 for his four-length debut graduation at six furlongs in December.

“He came out of the race very well,” Rice said of Sand Devil’s status on Sunday morning. “I think since they went so slow early, the dynamics of the race were a bit odd, but all in all, he dug in during the stretch. He had to fight off a contender, which is probably good for him as far as fitness and experience.”

The current meet-leading conditioner said that a likely next start for Sand Devil remains the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham on March 1, a one-turn mile offering 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

“It’s a gradual progression. As I’ve stated before, I had hoped to get to the Withers, but the weather in January was pretty harsh in New York,” Rice said. “This was our back up position and now we’ll point to the Gotham and see how it goes.”

The local Derby points events include the historic Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, a nine-furlong 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Derby qualifier, on April 5.

“We are hoping things go well in the Gotham and we can move onto the mile and an eighth in the Wood. Time will tell,” Rice said.

Bred by Chester and the late Mary Broman, Sand Devil is out of multiple stakes-winning Mineshaft mare Mineralogist. His second dam is the graded stakes-winning New York-bred Seeking the Ante.

A newcomer to the Rice barn is New York-bred Wynstock, who captured the 2023 Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and owners Edward Allred and Jack Liebau.

The 4-year-old Solomini colt raced six times last year, highlighted by a win in the Listed Los Alamitos Derby at its namesake oval in June. He is one to be aware of later this year, as Rice said she is giving him some time before his first start since an off-the-board finish in October’s Grade 2 Twilight Derby on the Santa Anita Park turf.

“He looks beautiful. He shipped to the East Coast, and we sent him to Dr. Hogan and gave him a three-month break,” Rice said. “He’d probably been in training for a year-and-a-half or better and I thought he might need a freshening, so he’s just arrived back. I think he’ll need between 60-90 days.

“I tried to buy him as a 2-year-old and ended up with him by default,” Rice added, with a laugh.

Wynstock, out of the Flatter mare Timberlea, sold for $700,000 at the 2023 OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, after originally going for $50,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. His second dam, Exit Three, produced Grade 3-winner Untrapped.

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Schettino mulling over next start for Bernieandtherose after $125K East View win

Robert Rosenthal and Bradford Bernstein’s New York homebred Bernieandtherose earned both her first stakes victory and her third consecutive trip to the winner’s circle in Saturday’s $125,000 East View, a seven-furlong test for state-bred sophomore fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Domenick Schettino and guided to victory by regular pilot Katie Davis, the chestnut daughter of Accelerate stalked along the inside behind the pace set by the favored Naive Melody before angling out into the stretch to take over from longshot Storm Changer in the final sixteenth and post the half-length score in a final time of 1:26.35. Bernieandtherose was awarded a career-best 74 Beyer Speed Figure in victory.

“She came back good,” Schettino said. “I was impressed with her, especially with her dropping back down on the inside and then once Katie got her outside, she was coming again.”

Bernieandtherose entered off back-to-back wins at the Big A against state-breds when graduating by 7 3/4 lengths at second asking sprinting seven furlongs on November 3 ahead of a 6 1/4-length optional claiming romp going a one-turn mile on November 24.

Schettino said both the one-mile Listed $200,000 Busher on March 1, which awards 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points, and the one-mile state-bred $125,000 Maddie May on March 8 are potential targets for the filly moving forward.

“We’ll see how she comes back and how she trains. I don’t think the distance will be an issue,” Schettino said. “She galloped out strong. She’s matured since she first came in. She wasn’t great in the gate, and it took us time to teach her the gate, but she’s matured a lot.”

Bernieandtherose has furthered what is proving to be a strong line of runners from the stakes-winning Freud mare Berning Rose, who captured the one-mile Maid of the Mist in 2017 at Belmont Park for the same connections. The mare has also produced the multiple stakes-placed Bernietakescharge and another winner in the filly Berning Honor.

Schettino said Bernieandtherose is the latest example of the quality that Berning Rose has produced so far in her young broodmare career.

“The mare won the Maid of the Mist, and her first three babies are all winners,” Schettino said. “They all went a route of ground, too. It’s rewarding to have trained them all and their mom.”

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Colloquial earns 106 BSF for maiden score, plans to be determined

Harrell Ventures and Starlight Racing’s promising sophomore colt Colloquial received a lofty 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his dominant second-out graduation under Manny Franco on Friday at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by George Weaver, the son of former Weaver pupil Vekoma returned from a nearly eight-month layoff after he finished a nose second to subsequent graded stakes-winner Mentee on debut in June at the Big A, a race that saw Mentee break the track record for five furlongs when completing the course in 56.97 seconds.

In his 6 1/2-furlong return, Colloquial bobbled at the start, but recovered well after running in fifth-of-8 early and was within 1 1/2 lengths of the lead at the half-mile call. The speedy chestnut was well within himself at the top of the lane as he took a two-length advantage and opened up to win by seven lengths geared down at the wire in a final time of 1:16.89.

Jack Wolf of Starlight Racing said Colloquial emerged from his race in good order, but no plans have yet been made for his next start.

“That was unbelievable. I was shocked at the 106 Beyer. The sheet number was a four minus after an 11 the year before. I said to Curtis Harrell, ‘Geez, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horse improve that much.’ He said, ‘Look at Charlatan’s numbers.’ He was very impressive.

“George has done a great job, and he makes the decisions on where the horse is going to go,” Wolf continued. “At this point, we don’t know where he’ll go, but he came out of the race good, and we’ll let him progress in the coming weeks.”

Colloquial is out of the winning Bernardini mare Terminology and was a $240,000 purchase from the Beau Lane Bloodstock consignment at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, one of around 10 yearlings that caught the eye of Corbin Blumberg, Starlight’s Firector of Racing and Bloodstock, during the 2023 sale season.

“We’ve been doing business with Beau Lane for 25 years. We look for the same thing every year – two-turn dirt horses that have good physicals, are athletic, well-balanced, and after we find an athlete, then we look at the pedigree,” Wolf explained. “I didn’t know that Vekoma was going to be the leading freshman sire at the time, and I liked him as a racehorse. On these East Coast horses, we buy young stallion [progeny] occasionally, and we liked the physical on him and the stallion, so here we are.”

With Weaver having trained Vekoma to victories in the two-turn Grade 2 Blue Grass and one-turn Grade 1 scores in the Carter and Metropolitan Handicaps, Wolf said the veteran conditioner was a great fit to be Colloquial’s trainer.

“I’ve known George for a long time, and we’ve had a few horses with him. This is one of the better ones for sure,” Wolf said. “Curtis Harrell and myself both like George and he of course trained Vekoma, so once we bought the horse, he approached us and was interested in training him. We said, ‘Go for it.’”

Colloquial’s 106 Beyer is the highest awarded to any horse born in 2022, a statistic that would rightfully have any connections dreaming of the biggest events for 3-year-olds this spring. Wolf, however, is content to take a wait and see approach.

“We will leave it all up to George. Through the years, we’ve had 13 or 14 horses entered in the Derby, and the ones that I got the Derby fever on didn’t belong there,” Wolf said, with a laugh. “I try not to get the Derby fever. If he happens to be a one-turn horse, he could win the Woody Stephens or Pat Day Mile. I would guess George will try to stretch him out at some point, but I don’t think the decision about his next race will be based on the Derby.”

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Scorching works for G3 Gotham

Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch’s dual stakes-winner Scorching worked five-eighths in 1:04.22 over the Belmont Park dirt training track Saturday in preparation for the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham on March 1, at Aqueduct Racetrack. The one-turn mile for sophomores offers 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifying points.

Trainer John Charalambous said the Mo Town dark bay completed his fourth local work in good order. The Canadian-bred colt, based at Woodbine for his first three career starts, has been stabled in the barn of conditioner Michael Miceli – a Toronto native.

“He went by himself, and he breezed well,” Charalambous said. “The track was slow. Sahin Civaci was supposed to breeze him but he’s hurt, so we called an audible and put one of Mike’s exercise riders on him.”

Charalambous, who has been training horses since 1982, said he’s not had to worry about adapting to New York weather.

“It would be nice if we had a few days in the 40s. We’ve had some touchy mornings here – Canadian mornings,” Charalambous said, with a laugh. “Fortunately, we haven’t missed any days of training with him, so that’s a bonus. There are a few options here that some of the colder weather tracks don’t have. I’ve utilized all the training options we have here and they’re good options, so you don’t miss a day.”

Charalambous has traveled to Aqueduct frequently in the past, including with multiple stakes-winner Countess Steffi, who ran third in the 1995 Listed Garland of Roses Handicap. His most recent local winner came with Charming Chester in a second-level allowance in 2000.

Scorching will look to put Charalambous back in the Big A winner’s circle, entering off a pair of Canadian-bred stakes wins in the 6 1/2-furlong Simcoe over Tapeta in August before being elevated to victory in the 1 1/16-mile Cup and Saucer over turf last out on October 6 when a nose back of Ashley’s Archer, who was disqualified and placed fifth for interference.

Scorching was meant to make one more start at Woodbine in the nine-furlong Coronation Futurity for Canadian-bred juveniles but had to miss the race.

“The timing and the distance of the Gotham works well for me to be able to get him ready off a little bit of a layoff. Hopefully, it works out,” Charalambous said. “It was unfortunate he got a virus before the Coronation Futurity. I thought he was the best or second best 2-year-old that ran at Woodbine last year. He did everything we asked of him.”

Scorching debuted in July sprinting 5 1/2-furlongs over the Woodbine synthetic and rallied on well to complete the exacta behind $300,000 yearling sale purchase Cut the Dust.

“His first race was a very good race. He ran against a highly-regarded horse of Josie Carroll, and he got into little traffic trouble around the turn and finished really strong,” Charalambous said. “He’s definitely a horse to get excited about. Whether he can handle the competition, I’m not sure, but he deserves an opportunity, and I think he’s up to the task.”

Bred in Ontario by Huntington Stud Farm Corp., the $88,551 CTHS Canadian-bred Yearling Sale purchase, a half-brother to Grade 3-placed Keep Grinding, is out of the stakes-placed Consolidator mare Samsal – a half-sister to Grade 3-placed Stormy Rush.

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