Picking a Chad Brown-trained horse on turf is usually a sound strategy. But sometimes it's not always the Brown trainee that one might expect to cross the wire first.
Royalty Interest, the longest shot in the field at 10-1, held off a furious rally to take the $194,000 Sheepshead Bay Stakes (G3T) in a photo finish May 3 at Belmont at the Big A.
Star Fortress came from the back of the field of five and narrowly missed spoiling a gate-to-wire victory by a head.
"I did my job, the pace was slow; nobody really came to push the button on me," jockey Eric Cancel said. "I tried to ride a smooth race. Once I started getting close to the quarter pole I took a peek back to check and see who I had, and I still felt I was full of horse."
Royalty Interest's stablemate, McKulick, was favored at 3-5 but was flat and finished fourth. Star Fortress and La Mehana finished second and third. Parnac was fifth.
A $2 win ticket paid $23.
After taking the 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay in 2:18.05 with fractions of :25.99, :52.08, 1:18.20, and 2:06.82, Cancel doesn't think the 4-year-old filly will struggle with longer distances. The Sheepshead Bay was her first shot going more than 1 1/16 miles.
"She's very smooth, she relaxes very well, she knows what to do," he said. "I don't think the distance will be a problem for her just by the way she ran today."
Video: Sheepshead Bay S. (G3T)
MESSIER SCORES IN WESTCHESTER
Sometimes the best things come from plans falling through. Just ask trainer Rick Dutrow.
His initial plan being spoiled resulted in Messier running in—and winning—the one-mile, $175,000 Westchester Stakes (G3). He stopped the clock in 1:34.50 as Jose Gomez earned his first graded-stakes victory. Messier paid $8.20 to win.
"I really didn't want to run him in this race, I had a different one picked out," Dutrow said. "That didn't work, but this did. I wanted to send him out to California and run him there; he loves Santa Anita. But they had that race that was just too staked with the owners. It was a good decision, he ran big today."
Messier got a solid jump out of the gate as he dueled with Adero, who led the first quarter-mile in :23.26 and the half-mile in :46.16, with 6-5 favorite Charge It third. Two wide with Adero on the rail, Messier took the lead around the turn and expanded it as Charge It passed a fading Adero.
Five lengths back, Post Time began his attack. Turning down the stretch, Post Time made up significant ground weaving between rivals and caught Charge It ahead of the final half-furlong. Coming to the wire like a fastball, Post Time had run out of ground. Charge It was third.
After the three-quarter-length win over Post Time, who had his four-race win streak snapped, Dutrow suggested the June 8 Metropolitan Handicap (G1) might be next for Messier.
The race was a bit of redemption for the 5-year-old son of Empire Maker after he was disqualified from first for interference in his last race, the Excelsior Stakes. He has a career record of 4-5-1 with earnings of $593,690 for SF Racing, Madaket Stables, Lansdon Roberts III, Tom Ryan, Robert Masterson, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital, Catherine Donovan, Golconda Stable, and Siena Farm.
"He showed up and we were very happy with his last race and we're even more thrilled with this one," said Dutrow.
