Afleet Again
charged down the middle of the stretch past Ibboyee and favored D Funnybone and
onto a 24-1 upset in the 131
st running of the Grade 3, $150,000
Withers for 3-year-olds Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct Racetrack
.
The gray son of Afleet Alex, who
in his most recent appearance at Aqueduct finished last in the Grade 3 Gotham,
broke sharply under jockey Abel Mariano and sat in fourth as Castaneda, under
pressure from D Funnybone, rocketed through fractions of 21.60 and 43.82.
Rounding the turn, Ibboyee began moving up on the outside past the pacesetters
and into command at the top of the stretch, but Afleet Again closed fastest of
all on the outside and went on to win by 1 ½ lengths.
His time for the mile was 1:34.05
over a fast track.
"My only instructions to the
jockey were to take hold early on, and hopefully the speed might back up", said
winning trainer Robert Reid. "He's a big, giant horse, and you don't want to get
him checked. Abel took him to the outside and gave him a clear run, and that's
what made the difference."
With the victory, his first in a
stakes, Afleet Again earned $90,000 to more than double his bankroll to $177,950
and extend his record to 3-1-2 from 10 starts. His backers in the crowd of 3,965
were rewarded with a $51 payoff for a $2 win bet.
"We really hadn't considered this
race before Wednesday," said Reid, who trains Afleet Alex for Cash is King
Stable, which campaigned his sire, 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner
Afleet Alex. "[But] it was a small
field, and I love the one-turn mile for him and the big sweeping turns here."
"We were concerned the race was a
little too short for him; I believe he's a legitimate mile and an eighth, mile
and a quarter horse, but that said, he's not eligible for the Triple Crown
races," added Reid.
Ibboyee was 4 ¼ lengths ahead of
Spangled Star, with prohibitive favorite D Funnybone beating only Castaneda as
he finished fourth in his first loss of the year after a pair of Grade 2
victories in the Swale and Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park, both at seven
furlongs.
"He just didn't have the finish",
said Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado, aboard the beaten favorite. "The mile got
him."