Albano Takes Flight in Pegasus
Brereton C. Jones' homebred Albano proved to be an impressive winner in Monmouth Park's local Haskell Invitational prep, the Grade 3, $150,000 Pegasus Stakes on Sunday.
In a reduced field of five due to the scratches of Uncle Sigh and Allstar, Ring Weekend took to the front to set an early pace of :22 4/5 and :46.2/5. Encryption and Albano kept within striking distance, followed by Lynx and Wildcatpleasures.
Piloted by Kerwin Clark, Albano made a bold bid for the lead mid-turn and took control as the field neared the quarter-pole. Encryption gave chase but could not hold his rival. Ring Weekend faded quickly heading into the stretch and was eased before the wire.
Albano faced no other challenges and drew clear to win by 6 1/2 lengths. Lynx finished third, another six lengths behind Encryption. Wildcatpleasures was fourth.
The expected favorite Uncle Sigh, coming off of a 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, was scratched early in the morning. His trainer Gary Contessa reported via social media that Uncle Sigh was "banged up a little" after he was "rolling in his stall and got cast" on Friday morning, but is not expected to have sustained any serious injuries.
Sent off at 6-5, Albano was slightly favored over Ring Weekend at 7-5. The winner paid $4.60, $2.80 and $2.40.
Bred in Kentucky by his owner, Albano is a 3-year-old bay colt by Istan out of the Fortunate Prospect dam Pocho's Dream Girl.
Unraced since a troubled fifth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby on March 29, the Larry Jones-trainee improves his overall record to three wins, two seconds and a third from seven lifetime starts and earnings of more than $300.000.
After the race, Larry Jones explained the connections strategy or, rather, lack thereof. "We had no plan. When we have someone like Kerwin [jockey Clark] he doesn’t need me giving him instructions," he said, "it will probably just mess it up anyway! He played it the way it came up. It sure looked awful good."
"The Haskell is our game plan, but we’ll see how it goes. This horse races pretty good fresh, so if we come to Haskell this was his prep. We’ve had quite a bit of success at Monmouth, so that’s certainly the race we’re looking at."