Sunny Ridge back in form with second straight stakes win

In the fall of 2015, a longshot from New Jersey finished a clear second in the historic Champagne Stakes. It may well turn out to be the highest career finish in a Grade 1 race for Dennis A. Drazin's Sunny Ridge, but then again, it might not.

Yesterday at Aqueduct, the plucky New Jersey-bred took the overland route to power by his competition in the 62nd running of the $125,000 Stymie. The three-quarter-length victory under Manny Franco in 1:50.19 was by no means flashy, but it was vintage Sunny Ridge.

That runner-up finish in the Champagne, at two, was not the only Grade 1 attempt for Sunny Ridge. Last summer at Monmouth Park, he finished third in the million-dollar Haskell Invitational. Exaggerator was best, but the Jason Servis-trained gelding ran a big race that afternoon, while finishing ahead of such stars as Nyquist and Gun Runner.

It was a solid result, after a long-range plan. Bred, owned, and raced by Dennis Drazin, Sunny Ridge was pointed for the Haskell all along. Drazin is the face of Monmouth Park -- he works tirelessly to keep the track alive and well, despite unfriendly state politics. After an early season victory in last year's Grade 3 Withers Stakes, Drazin resisted Derby fever, rather he said the hometown Haskell was the goal.

It was a move designed not only to support his track, but also to do what was best for the horse. So many horses run in the Kentucky Derby without much hope to actually win, and it is seldom a positive thing for their racing careers. A pulled muscle actually kept him out longer than expected, but he skipped the Derby as planned, and was back in time to run a strong performance in the Haskell.

He bounced back slowly from that big effort, finishing off the board in the Pennsylvania Derby and the Discovery, but now it seems he is back to his old self. Also a winner of the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth, once one of the most prestigious juvenile races in the nation, at two, Sunny Ridge now has two straight stakes wins, having also taken the Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct in January. 

Yesterday's Stymie was another move forward for Sunny Ridge. The 99-Beyer Speed Figure he received for the win, over the deep field, points out that a return to graded stakes racing should be in the cards for the son of Holy Bull.

While true his last three stakes wins have come over the inner-track at the Big A, Sunny Ridge has plenty of other strong performances at other places such as Belmont, Monmouth, and this memorable battle with Exaggerator in the Delta Downs Jackpot.

 

Sunny Ridge may never win that elusive Grade 1, and that's OK. He is an honest gelding, and with only 13 lifetime races, the four-year-old gray may still only be in the early stages of his career. He has four stakes wins already in his possession, and $833,002 in the bank. The future looks nothing but bright for a horse clearly well managed by his connections. I, for one, am a fan.