Aqueduct: Romansh romps in Discovery

Rebounding from an off-the-board finish in the Pennsylvania Derby, Romansh rallied to the lead approaching the stretch and romped to a lengthy victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Discovery Handicap at Aqueduct - the season’s last graded stakes for 3-year-old males in New York.

Romansh ($7.90) settled in third position under Jose Ortiz, and was content to track Micromanage and Vegas No Show through early fractions of 23.49 and 47.36 seconds.

Vegas No Show briefly poked a head in front midway on the far turn after six furlongs in 1:11.76, but Romansh quickly wrested the lead coming to the five-sixteenths pole and drew out to win by 9 1/4 lengths under a mild drive.

Norumbega rallied wide to finish second by a length over Micromanage, who came wide to pick up third as part of the favored 5-4 entry with Midnight Taboo, who faded to fifth.

Romansh ran 1 1/8 miles on a fast main track in 1:48.28, the fastest Discovery time since Left Bank set the stakes record of 1:47.20 in 2000.

Rmansh carried 117 pounds, two fewer than top-weighted Vegas No Show, who finished seventh in the field of eight.

“I rode [Romansh] with a lot of confidence because he had been running against better horses,” said Ortiz, who was riding the son of Bernardini for the first time. “I was just a passenger. I raced in third, outside everybody, and had a beautiful trip. It turned out great.”

Romansh was coming off an 11-length defeat in the Pa. Derby, and notched his first graded stakes win for Godolphin Racing and trainer Tom Albertrani. He improved to 3-0-1 from 7 starts overall, including a victory in the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga via the disqualification of his entrymate, Transparent.

“After the Pennsylvania Derby, we gave him a little time off and pointed to this race,” said assistant trainer Pedro Mateo. “At Parx, he might not have liked the track, you never know. But he had been training very well coming into [the race] and we were hopeful he would run the way he did over the summer. We always thought he was a nice horse and now he’s maturing. He’ll be going to Florida for the winter next week.”