Crupi staves up late charge and draws away to first stakes victory in Discovery. (Chelsea Durand)
By Brian Bohl
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Crupi outdueled pacesetter Army Times at the top of the stretch, repelled runner-up Winters Lion’s late charge and drew away to a 1 1/4-length win in Friday’s $150,000 Discovery for 3-year-olds going nine furlongs at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Crupi, the 6-5 favorite, provided Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher his seventh career Discovery victory while earning a winner’s circle trip in his first start at the Big A since running ninth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino in April.
Army Times, trained by Chad Brown, broke sharp from the inside post and lead the five-horse field through an opening quarter mile in 25.09 seconds and the half in 49.80 over the fast main track. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche, aboard Crupi from post 2, took advantage of the modest fractions and urged his charge up near the rail, saving ground out of the final turn and thwarting Army Times’ charge to his outside.
Winters Lion made a late stretch-drive bid, but Crupi powered to the wire in a final time of 1:51.60 for his first stakes scores to win the 79th edition of the Discovery. It was his third win in his last four starts in an impressive first effort back since running fifth in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby in September at Parx.
“It was the right move,” Carmouche said. “The horse felt the move and he wanted to do it. When the horse wants to do it, you got to do it. Nine times out of 10, they’ll make the right move and you just have to prepare yourself to ride hard the way home. Todd and his team had this horse ready.”
Crupi, a son of Hall of Famer Curlin, returned $4.40 on a $2 win bet. He improved his career record to 3-2-3 in 11 starts with earnings of $290,250 after banking $82,500 from Friday’s win.
“The pace was slow so it ended up being a good move by Kendrick to do that,” said Byron Hughes, the Belmont-based assistant to Pletcher. “Everything worked out at that point. We’ve always thought he had a lot of talent. Some of these Curlins just seem to take longer to put it all together. Hopefully, this will springboard him to a big year next year.”
Winters Lion, under jockey Vincent Cheminaud, finished five lengths clear of Army Times for second. Tabegauche and Dats Mr. Mo completed the order of finish. Drake’s Passage scratched.
Live racing resumes on Saturday with a 10-race program, featuring the $120,000 Atlantic Beach and the $120,000 Stewart Manor. First post is 11:40 a.m. Eastern.
America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.
