Effinex Upsets Stablemate Wicked Strong in the Excelsior
As expected, trainer Jimmy Jerkens won the $200,000 Excelsior (G3) at Aqueduct; however, the winner was not his 3-5 betting favorite Wicked Strong. It was “the other” Jerkens runner, Effinex, a 6-1 New York-bred, that got the victory.
This scenario is famously familiar for Centennial Farms and their now four-year-old, Wicked Strong. Last year in the Travers, Wicked Strong, who was a popular 5-2, got rundown by his 19-1 long shot stablemate, V. E. Day right at the wire in Saratoga.
Early in his career, Effinex was trained by David Smith. He flashed enough talent when he won two consecutive New York-bred races, that he ran in the 2014 Wood Memorial, where he was soundly defeated by Wicked Strong. That summer, Effinex was transferred to the barn of Jerkens. In the fall, at Belmont, he won the Empire Classic, which is also restricted to state-breds. With regular rider Angel Arroyo on board, the son of Mineshaft won an open second level allowance on the Aqueduct inner track in his 2015 debut.
Today in the Excelsior, everything came together for Tri-Bone Stables' Effinex. Arroyo sat patiently behind the early leaders for the first mile of this ten-furlong main track race. Out of the gate Wicked Strong broke last in the six-horse field and was rushed up between horses by his regular jockey Rajiv Maragh. Red Rifle was on the rail and the lead with Wicked Strong a length behind while Turco Bravo was another length back on the outside. They raced as a trio that way for the first three quarters in 1:12.70.
After a mile, Wicked Strong began to edge up on Red Rifle and at the same time, Effinex commenced a strong closing move on the outside of his stablemate. He easily passed Wicked Strong and went after Red Rifle. Wicked Strong faded and drifted out to the middle of the track while Effinex wore down the early pace setter. In the end Wicked Strong ended up in third place.
Arroyo described his trip, "I had the best trip. I was able to break good and relax behind the speed. I waited for the stretch, and my horse responded when I asked. He's a nice horse."
After the race Jerkens first talked about his winner, Effinex, "He had a long campaign last year, going against older horses. We thought that if we gave him a late spring campaign, we could give him his best shot to become a better horse because he had run pretty hard last year. We don't have anything planned for him, we'll bring him back to the barn and evaluate when he comes back."
About Wicked Strong, Jerkens added, "I was a little worried about running 1 ¼ miles after having just one race in Florida, even though it was a good effort. It puts a horse in a different mindset when you have to go chasing fast horses then you have to slow them back down again. You try to do what you can in the morning, but there's only so much you can do. He'll be back."
At this point Wicked Strong has not found the winner’s circle since he beat Tonalist in the 2014 Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga. Since then, he has become a bit of a hard luck horse with the narrow Travers defeat and his fall in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
This year’s Excelsior was run at ten furlongs for the first time, one of the very few dirt stakes run at that distance in New York, and was moved a month later in the calendar with an extra $50,000 in purse money.