Sullimar Stable’s Get Stormy, winner of a pair of
Grade 2 grass races in Saratoga
this summer, the Fourstardave and Bernard Baruch, added a major accomplishment
to his resume Friday when he wired the field in Keeneland’s Maker’s Mark Mile
for the first Grade 1 victory of his career.
“Yesterday was Clyde’s
day,” said trainer Tom Bush. “He was certainly ready for that one and it was
really special.”
The son of Stormy Atlantic picked up the moniker Clyde around the barn because his coloring –
bay with a blaze and four white socks – is reminiscent of a Clydesdale’s.
Bush said he hadn’t ruled out the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve
Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 7 as a possible next stop for Get
Stormy, but wasn’t certain about the timing of the race.
“It is back a little close,” said Bush. “That’s the only
race immediately on the horizon that we’re thinking about right now, but we
need to chew on it a little and figure things out.”
Also running at Keeneland on Friday was New York-bred turf
stalwart Banrock, who made a four-wide rally to finish fifth in a 1
1/16-mile turf allowance. The 8-year-old gelding missed a planned start in last
fall’s Ashley T. Cole at Belmont
Park
and some training because of an illness, and finished off the board in three
optional claimers at Gulfstream Park
this winter.
“He was pretty far out of it yesterday, but I think it will
set him up fine for the first New York-bred grass race at Belmont,”
said Bush.
The one-mile Kingston Stakes for state-bred turfers is
scheduled for May 29 at Belmont.
Banrock won the race in 2008 and 2009 before finishing fifth in last year’s
renewal.
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Ramon Dominguez, the reigning Eclipse Award winner
for Outstanding Jockey, is on pace in 2011 to exceed his previous year’s
out-of-state graded-stakes win tally after prevailing in yesterday’s Grade 1,
$500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park with Havre de Grace.
Victorious in eight graded stakes outside New York in 2010, Dominguez has won six
graded stakes outside the Empire State
so far in 2011. In chronological order, Dominguez has captured the Grade 3 Sam
F. Davis and Grade 3 Endeavor at Tampa Bay Downs with Brethren and Silver
Reunion, respectively, the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park with
Harissa, the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride at Gulfstream Park with Dynamic Holiday,
and the Grade 3 Azeri and Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn with Havre de Grace.
Dominguez has already matched his out-of-state 2010 Grade 1 victory total, as
his sole triumph at that level last year came in the Shadwell Turf Mile at
Keeneland with Gio Ponti.
Dominguez, currently second in the Aqueduct spring meet
jockey standings, was the leading rider on the NYRA circuit in 2009 and
2010 and has garnered 12 of the last 13 meet titles.