Big Everest noses Anaconda in Danger's Hour
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Big Everest made a successful return to the races Saturday at Aqueduct, holding off Anaconda by a nose to win the three-horse, $87,000 Danger’s Hour Stakes at Aqueduct.
It was 6 1/2 lengths back to Eleven Central in third. The remaining three horses entered for turf - plus main-track-only entrant Bourbon Calling, all scratched.
Celestial City, the 5-2 morning-line second choice, suffered a minor hind end injury while training Friday at Belmont, according to his trainer Shug McGaughey. So High got loose during training hours Thursday morning and suffered some minor scrapes and bruises, trainer Naipaul Chatterpaul told the New York Racing Association publicity department. Koolhaus scratched in favor of a dirt allowance race here on Sunday.
Big Everest, a 5-year-old Great Britain gelding by The Gurkha, was making his first start since last Nov. 13 when he won the Artie Schiller Stakes going a mile here. As was the case that day, Big Everest was a front-running victor Saturday, taking the lead over Eleven Central entering the first turn.
Big Everest, ridden by Manny Franco, maintained a measured one-length advantage over Eleven Central through six furlongs in 1:10.93. Though Franco said he felt Big Everest was tiring late, he had enough to just hold off Anaconda for the win.
“He got a little tired, that’s why the finish was so close,” Franco said. “At the eighth pole I felt he was giving me his all, but I still got [Anaconda] outside so I went left-handed and tried to put him together with the other horse, that way he can see him and he battled back and got it done.”
Big Everest, who was winning for the fifth time in his last six starts, covered the mile in 1:34.54 and returned $3.10 as the favorite. Big Everest is owned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and trained by Christophe Clement.
Dylan Davis, riding Anaconda for the first time, said the horse stayed on his left lead until very late.
“He wanted to lay on that left lead for a while, until that last sixteenth, when he switched over and he made it close,” Davis said.
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