Stimulate runs away from the field to take the Dwyer, NYRA Photo
Claiborne Farm and Adele B. Dilschneider’s Kentucky homebred Stimulate powered away to a 7 1/2-length score in Saturday’s Listed $200,000 Dwyer, a one-turn mile for sophomores, at Belmont Park.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and piloted by Junior Alvarado, the Tapit colt blazed a similar path to his dual Grade 1-winning multimillionaire dam Elate [19-7-7-2, $2.6M], who romped to an open-lengths score in the 2017 Grade 1 Beldame here for these connections with Jose Ortiz up.
Stimulate made his first three outings at Saratoga Race Course, winning twice versus elders this summer with a second-out graduation sprinting seven furlongs in July ahead of an allowance score going one-mile on August 22. He entered the Dwyer from a prominent third in the Bourbon Flight on September 26 at Churchill Downs.
Mott said Stimulate is starting to live up to the high expectations he had for the colt.
“I did [have high expectations] last year before we ran him as a 2-year-old, then we had to stop on him,” Mott said. “Brought him back, his first two races were good this year. I’m just totally confused by the race at Churchill. I don’t know, I can’t figure it out, there was no stopping him today. I thought two turns is what he would want. His other races, his three wins have been at one turn.”
While Mailata was slow to leave the outermost post 8, a trio of rivals sprinted to the front with the New York-bred Bravaro emerging with a narrow lead from White Smoke Rising as Alvarado was content to take back to third position aboard Stimulate in front of the returning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Ted Noffey.
“He broke very sharp, and I wanted to make sure I was a little off the pace,” Alvarado explained. “I didn’t want to engage. I let him settle and sit right behind the pace. I was able to make the first run and he sustained the run all the way through the wire.”
Bravaro showed the way through splits of 22.98 seconds, 45.63 and 1:09.93 over the fast main track but was pestered throughout by White Smoke Rising. Stimulate advanced under little urging with an outside run through the turn and loomed large as the 6-5 favorite Sea Strike launched a wide bid from the back of the pack under Flavien Prat.
The late-running Sea Strike emerged from the pack as the only threat, but there was no reeling in Stimulate, who had opened up a three-length advantage at the stretch call and surged home in a final time of 1:33.64.
Alvarado and Mott, who teamed up to win the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic last weekend with Sovereignty, enjoyed their second stakes win together on the day having taken the Listed Pumpkin Pie earlier on the card with Beauty Reigns.
Alvarado credited Mott for having Stimulate ready to roll.
“He was very impressive, but I’m not surprised though. We always thought he was a very nice horse, and Bill has done an amazing job with him,” Alvarado said. “Mentally, he’s a horse that’s not the easiest one in the barn, but if you want to have a horse to peak at the right time, Billy Mott’s the best at doing that. He showed up today with a great performance.”
Sea Strike completed the exacta by 1 1/2-lengths over Igniter, with Bravaro, Ted Noffey, White Smoke Rising, Overtime Rules and Mailata rounding out the order of finish. Stop the Car and Decisive Win scratched.
The Chad Brown-trained Sea Strike had made his last three starts at the Spa, including an impressive win in the restricted Listed Curlin presented by Casamigos on August 9 ahead of a sixth-place finish last out in the Grade 1 DraftKings Travers on August 29.
Prat said he had Sea Strike in a good position but had to tip his cap to the winner.
“The winner was just too good today,” Prat said. “He was traveling well and I liked my position, he made a good run and just couldn’t go by the winner.”
Spendthrift Farms’ Ted Noffey went 4-for-4 in a sparkling juvenile campaign, taking Grade 1 wins under Hall of Famer John Velazquez in the Spendthrift Farm Hopeful at Saratoga, Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. He returned here from a 13-month absence.
“He was probably a little rusty off the layoff,” Pletcher said. “Johnny [Velazquez] said he put him in a good position and was traveling pretty well, he just kind of finished evenly and couldn’t find that burst late. It was a fastly-run race and he galloped out pretty good – he had a tough time pulling him up over there, and he said he just didn’t quicken when he needed him to.
“I thought he got into a good spot and a good rhythm, but you could see on the turn, the race started to pick up and he was just kind of staying even,” Pletcher added.
Pletcher said he was happy to get the talented Ted Noffey back to the track.
“Any time you have an undefeated 2-year-old Champion, you want to win, but we were also realistic that he hasn’t run in 13 months, and this is a difficult assignment to come back in. We’ll get with the team at Spendthrift and come up with a plan,” Pletcher said.
Mott said he wasn’t yet ready to commit Stimulate for another start versus elders in the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile on December 6 here.
“It went through my mind, but it’d be kind of a lot to ask,” Mott said.
Stimulate banked $110,000 in victory while improving his record to 5-3-0-1. He returned $20.56 for a $2 win bet. His rich pedigree includes stakes-winning second dam Cheery, dual graded stakes-winning third dam Yell and dual graded stakes-winning fourth dam Wild Applause as part of a deep family that traces back to foundation mare La Troienne.
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