Friday, September 3, 2010
Contact: NYRA Press Office
(518) 584-6200, ext. 4237
- Repole heads into final weekend with lead among owners
- Lisa’s Booby Trap in good order after 10th place finish on turf, eyes Belmont Park
- Bush pleased with You and I Forever’s draw in Forego; Ashley T. Cole possible for Banrock
He’s made good on his promise.
Heading into the final three days of the 142nd meet at the Spa, Repole Stables is atop the owner standings with 13 victories from 42 starters, nearly double its closest competitors. Among the highlights of the meet have been
Repole, however, still has one more goal: to win a graded stakes. Sunday, he has two chances with Sky Hosoya and Stopspendingmaria in the Grade 1 Spinaway, and on Monday, Stay Thirsty will carry his colors in the Grade 1 Three Chimneys Hopeful.
“I believe we have eight seconds and seven thirds in graded stakes through the years,” he said this morning outside trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn. “This year, I wanted to put pressure on myself. Winning 13 of 42 races and heading into the weekend with a chance to win two Grade 1 races is a pretty good feeling.”
Stay Thirsty, a dark bay son of Bernardini out of the Storm Bird mare Marozia, cost Repole $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton 2-year-olds in training sale in February.
“We were bidding against [Hall of Fame trainer] Nick Zito and [owner] Robert LaPenta,” he said, “I was so naïve, I didn’t know they owned him. I joked with Todd, if I’d known that, I would have stopped at $300,000. Now, I’m glad I didn’t.”
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Lisa’s Booby Trap, who suffered the first defeat of her career Thursday when running on turf for the first time in the second division of the $70,000 Riskaverse, has emerged from the race in good order, her owner/trainer Tim Snyder said Friday morning.
Named for Snyder’s late wife and a
“She’s doing very well, she just galloped around there yesterday,” Snyder said. “We’re definitely not going to run back on the grass! Even if she started talking and said ‘please put me on the grass again,’ I wouldn’t do it. I’m going to take her to my Mother-in-Law’s farm in
While Snyder has not yet mapped out a plan for the big bay filly, he is contemplating a future start on the main track at
“I’d like to run her at
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Algahtani Jafar Abdullah’s You and I Forever will break from the outside post in Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego, a draw that pleased trainer Tom Bush.
“He’s always preferred the outside, so the post position is not as much as a negative as it’d be for some of the other horses,” said Bush. “In his last race [a third in the James Marvin on July 23], he got too far back early, and he had post 1.”
In the Forego, You and I Forever will be reunited with Javier Castellano, who rode the 5-year-old to victory in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap in March and to an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap in May. Castellano and Bush are also the team behind Get Stormy, who won the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap and Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap earlier in the
“We’re having a little luck with Javier right now,” said Bush of Castellano, victorious in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers with Afleet Express for trainer Jimmy Jerkens. “He certainly has the hot hand.”
Bush added that he is considering the Ashley T. Cole for New York-breds at
Banrock – who concluded his 2009 season with three straight stakes wins, including a score in the Ashley T. Cole – is winless in three starts so far in 2010, but Bush is not discouraged with the 7-year-old New York-bred gelding, who was second in the Battlefield at Monmouth on July 10 and fourth in the West Point at Saratoga on August 19 in his two most recent outings.
“He ran a great race at Monmouth, and last time the turf course had been somewhat speed favoring,” said Bush. “That had a big impact on him, for sure.”
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