Edges G3 Winner Bye Bye Melvin for First Career Stakes Win
BALTIMORE, Md. – Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey’s Don Juan Kitten, beaten a head by Bye Bye Melvin in their previous meeting, avenged the loss and got the best of his rival by a nose on the wire Saturday in the $100,000 James W. Murphy at Pimlico Race Course.
The 55th running of the one-mile Murphy for 3-year-olds on turf was ninth on a 12-race, all-stakes Preakness Day program featuring the $1 million Preakness (G1) and $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2).
Ridden by Gabriel Saez for trainer Danny Gargan, Don Juan Kitten ($7) picked up his third career win and first in a stakes. The winning time was 1:42.24 over the yielding turf course.
“[John Velazquez and Bye Bye Melvin] were right on my heels. I said, ‘Here they come.’ But thank goodness we were able to hold on. We wanted to get him to relax on the backstretch. He was a little rank against the bit, but I was able to get him [relaxed] good enough for him to finish. He’s the type of horse that needs to be on the lead or close to it,” Saez recounted.
Don Juan Kitten pressed 80-1 long shot Oceans Map through a quarter-mile in 23.95 seconds before taking over the top spot down the backstretch after a demanding half in 47.90. Don Juan Kitten opened up some daylight once straightened for home but Bye Bye Melvin rallied down the center of the stretch with a steady run and the two hit the line together, with Don Juan Kitten on the inside emerging from the photo victorious.
Reconvene made a big late run to get up for third, 1 ¼ lengths behind Bye Bye Melvin and a half-length ahead of Vanzzy in fourth. Bye Bye Melvin, winner of the one-mile Saranac (G3) last out Aug. 29 at Saratoga, was the fourth runner-up finish on the Preakness Day program for trainer Graham Motion, who won last year’s Murphy with English Bee.
Trainer Graham Motion said of Bye Bye Melvin’s second place finish: “He ran great. It’s been a really unlucky day. That was a tough one.”
The James W. Murphy pays homage to the late trainer that won nearly 1,400 races and more than 50 stakes and $24 million in purses starting in 1965. He was named the MTHA’s Trainer of the Year in 2006, three years before he died at age 82.
Press Release
Photo: Don Juan Kitten. Credit: Maryland Jockey Club
