Sunny Ridge breaks through in Withers
Racing in second throughout, Sunny Ridge was all heart and determination in taking down the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over Aqueduct’s inner track. As New York's second 2016 Kentucky Derby prep, he earned 10 qualifying points towards the first Saturday in May.
Vorticity won the break and the scramble for the lead. Sunny Ridge took up position just to his outside. Adventist, who was off a beat slow and rank into the clubhouse turn, settled down into the backstretch and nabbed the third running spot. Flexibility was to the inside and fourth and followed by King Kranz and Donegal Moon.
With Jose Ortiz in the irons, Vorticity showed the way through splits of :24.56, :49.81 and 1:14.70. Behind him, Adventist moved past Flexibility to gain third, but the rest of the field maintained their running positions. As the field moved out of the backstretch and into the far turn, Sunny Ridge moved onto even terms with Vorticity, who continued to tenaciously hang onto the lead.
Spinning for home, Manuel Franco asked Sunny Ridge for his best run and the real battle was on. Racing stride for stride, Vorticity continued to battle on even after being headed by the New Jersey-bred gelding. Behind them, Adventist and Flexibility were engaged in their own private battle, desperately trying to get the better of each other while trying to run down the front-running duo in front of them.
As the wire loomed, Sunny Ridge finally began to draw away from Vorticity deep inside the final furlong and crossed the wire the winner by ¾-length in a final time of 1:46.99. Vorticity was a clear second, and Adventist nailed third by a neck. Flexibility, Donegal Moon and King Kranz completed the order of finish. Cards of Stone was scratched.
Winning rider Manuel Franco was happy with how the race set up. “Heading into the race we wanted to be close to the leader. We knew our horse has a lot of speed,” he said. “Thankfully, the race setup for it to unfold that way and we took it from there and it worked out good. He’s a real grinder, he has one pace and likes to run all day. I definitely like him going further.”
Sent off at 7-2, Sunny Ridge paid $9.50/$4.20/$5.30 for the win. Runner-up Vorticity, 6-1, returned $6.00/$7.90, and Adventist (10-1) returned $8.60 for the show. The $2 exacta paid $55.00, the $2 trifecta returned $308.00 and the $2 superfecta was worth $456.00.
Jason Servis, who saddled the winner, said post-race, “I knew he'd break sharp and that was just what he did. I felt pretty good going down the backside. [Flexibility] had some work to do and I was kind of where I needed to be. It might give him a little trouble sometimes [that] he breaks so good. A win is a win, it's great.”
By Holy Bull and out of the Songandaprayer mare Lignum Vitae, Sunny Ridge is a homebred for owner/breeder Dennis A. Drazin. Winner of the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth, Sunny Ridge was the runner-up in the G1 Champagne and the G3 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes. Today’s victory in the Withers was the gelding’s first graded stakes triumph and improved his career record to 6: 3-2-0 for total purse monies of $524,752.
As to where Sunny Ridge will go next, Servis stated, “We'll nominate for the Gotham [on March 5] and we'll nominate for the Wood [Memorial, on April 9] but we'll probably do one of them.”