Time and Motion, Sudden Surprise Close Out Aqueduct Spring Meet

Phillips Racing Partnership's Time and Motion came four-wide into the stretch and onto a rousing victory in the $100,000 Memories of Silver for 3-year-old turf fillies and Repole Stable's Sudden Surprise won the $100,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Series for eligible sophomores on Sunday as Aqueduct Racetrack concluded its 19-day spring meet.

Racing moves to Belmont Park for its 54-day spring/summer beginning Friday, April 29. First race post time is 1:30 p.m. with admission gates opening at 11:30 a.m.

Trained by Jimmy Toner, who trained the race's namesake to multiple graded stakes victories in the 1990s, Time and Motion was content to run in third as Taralina and Lira led through moderate fractions of 24.76 and 50.62 seconds over the firm turf course. Taken to the outside by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, the homebred daughter of Tapit surged to the front once in the stretch and rolled to a 1 1/4-length victory over My Impression, who split horses in deep stretch to gain second.

"I love this filly; she's a high-quality filly," said Toner. "For her to win a race named after a horse I trained is doubly good."

Time and Motion's winning time for the 1 1/16 miles was 1:45.05 as she earned her second win of 2016 and first in a stakes after going 0-for-3 as a 2-year-old.

"She's changed a lot from two to three," said Toner of Time and Motion, who was third in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo and fifth, beaten only 1 ¾ lengths, in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2015. "Let's face it, I got a little ambitious with her last year. She handled it well, and fortunately she came back good as a 3-year-old. This year we started off back down to reality, I think we're on the right track. If all goes well, we'll look at the Wonder Again [June 5] and ultimately, the [Grade 1, $1 million] Belmont Oaks [July 9]."

Sent off as the even-money favorite, Time and Motion paid $4.20 for a $2 win bet, and boosted her bankroll to $138,150 with a record of 2-0-11 from five starts.

Pricedtoperfection and Taralena finished in a dead heat for third, with My Impression and Lira completing the order of finish.

With a wire-to-wire dash in the 6 ½-furlong Times Square, Sudden Surprise earned his first victory of the year and fifth stakes of his career. Under Velazquez, the homebred son of Giant Surprise zipped through unchallenged fractions of 23.75, 47.04 and 1:12.12 en route to a 1 ¼-length victory over Lucky Lurie in 1:17.66.

"[The trip was] just the way we expected it," said Velazquez. "We came out running and I put him to the lead and tried to hold on. With all those horses, he likes to be there, so why take away his fight, you know, his style. [He's] pretty much the same [as last year]."

As a juvenile, Sudden Surprise won the Funny Cide, Bertram Bongard, Notebook and the Great White Way division of the NYSS. He began his 2016 campaign with a second-place finish in the Gander, then was sixth and last in the Jimmy Winkfield in March.

"Now we can cross a line through that last race," said Byron Hughes, assistant to winning trainer Todd Pletcher. "He's a very consistent horse and it was a good win. Last time out, he just didn't fire. It's very exciting for him to win his fifth stakes race. Timing-wise, we'll see how he comes out of it and go from there."

Sudden Surprise returned $3.70 for a $2 win bet as the 4-5 favorite. With this winner's purse of $60,000, his bankroll stands at $498,800 with a record of 6-1-0 from nine starts.

Completing the order of finish were Dr. Shane, Bust Another, Timber and Gaming.

 
Source: NYRA Communications (Jenny Kellner)