Barese roars back from layoff with Rego Park triumph
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It wasn’t by design that Barese didn’t race for nearly eight months after he won his debut at Belmont Park last May. A chip in a knee that required surgery kept him away from the races for the remainder of his 2-year-old season.
On Sunday, at Aqueduct, Barese began making up for lost time, rallying five-wide under Dylan Davis to win the $100,000 Rego Park Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds by 2 3/4 lengths. Agility won a three-way tussle for second by a neck over Daufuskie Island, who was a head in front of pacesetting Unique Unions.
Cut the Cord finished fifth, followed by Doin’ittherightway, G Munning, the 4-5 favorite, Always Charming and Bali’s Shade.
Barese, a son of Laoban, showed determination last May 21 at Belmont when he wore down Bali’s Shade to win a five-furlong maiden race by a half-length. Trainer Mike Maker pointed him to and had him entered in the Rick Violette Stakes at Saratoga on July 21.
“The day before he came back off, we had to scratch him, did some knee surgery, came back wonderful,” Maker said by phone from South Florida.
On Sunday, breaking from post 5 in the nine-horse field, Barese found himself a few lengths off the pace and right behind Agility for the opening quarter-mile. Entering the far turn, Davis took Barese out into the clear and gradually moved into contention while four to five wide.
Unique Unions, under Manny Franco, set fractions of 22.64 seconds for the quarter and 46.91 for the half while being chased by Daufuskie Island and Agility. Unique Unions was able to maintain his advantage to the eighth pole, but Barese, despite being wide, was lengthening his stride and passed Unique Unions at the sixteenth pole and easily outfinished Agility and Daufuskie Island to get the win.
“They kind of ran away from him, which I thought would happen,” Davis said. “He was handling the kickback well, but nearing the five-eighths pole he started getting a little aggressive with me. I felt like it was better to not keep him behind those horses. I gave him a nice clear spot in the four path to just let him do his thing.”
Barese, owned by Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs over a good track in 1:19.13 and returned $11 as the second choice.
“It looked like he was a bit wide, but he finished strong,” Maker said. “You’re always a little suspect off a layoff like that, but good horses make you look good.”
Maker said he would likely look to stretch Barese out to a mile in the $100,000 Gander Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds on Feb. 21.