Baby Yoda, Rhiannon set track records on same card
?q=100)
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Friday was a track-record setting day at Aqueduct.
The 7-year-old gelding Baby Yoda, away from the races since last November, won a stakes-caliber allowance race by 4 1/4 lengths. He ran 6 1/2 furlongs over the main track in 1:13.86 which established a track record, eclipsing the mark set by Coronado’s Quest (1:14.35) when, as a 2-year-old in 1997, he won the Grade 2 Cowdin Stakes.
Baby Yoda, who debuted in a $10,000 claiming race at Pimlico in 2021, on Friday dueled with Light Man through fractions of 22.12 seconds for the quarter and 44.15 for the half-mile. He put that horse away and, under Flavien Prat, cruised to the wire an authoritative winner over War Stride. Sent off the favorite, Baby Yoda returned $6.60 to win.
Baby Yoda, trained by Bill Mott for owners Gary Barber, Adam Wachtel, Jerold Zaro, and Pantofel Stable, won for the 10th time from 30 starts. He has increased his bankroll to $937,320. Baby Yoda will likely head to Saratoga where he has won four times including the Grade 2 True North a year ago. Back in 2021, he won a first-level allowance race by 4 1/4 lengths, running 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.33 and earning a 114 Beyer Speed Figure.
Earlier on the card, the 5-year-old mare Rhiannon set an outer turf course record for 1 1/8 miles winning a stakes-caliber allowance race in 1:45.60, nudging out Deterministic’s 1:45.70 winning the Grade 2 Fort Marcy on May 3.
Rhiannon is a 5-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by CHP Racing and trained by Chad Brown.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.