Bravaro, an outstanding juvenile learning the virtues of patience, spent most of his second career start bottled up on the rail in the $200,000 Sleepy Hollow Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday. Jockey Dylan Davis’s confidence never wavered, and when the 3-5 favorite finally got clear in the stretch, he surged down the center and cruised home to a 2 1/2-length victory. “He’s stretching out to a mile, so I don’t want to use him too early to try to get some position that would’ve cost me later down the race,” Davis said. “Just let him break comfortable and get into stride, and once I came across the chute, he started taking me into the race, but he was comfortable within himself.” The Sleepy Hollow kicked off Empire Showcase Day at Aqueduct, an 11-race card featuring nine $200,000 New York-bred stakes. Bravaro set the tone for a chalky start to the card, as all four early stakes were won by heavy favorites. Coming off a similarly impressive maiden victory from off the pace on Sept. 28, the New York-bred colt stretched out from six furlongs to a mile in his stakes debut on Saturday. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said that the added distance would benefit him, and it certainly gave him more time when he and Davis found themselves trapped behind a wall of horses on the far turn. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Four runners in the field of six vied for the early lead out of the gate, and 18-1 longshot Time To Roll hustled down the backstretch to take a short lead over trainer Jeremiah Englehart's gelding Fourth and One through an opening quarter-mile in 22.60 seconds. The early pacesetters continued scrapping and swapped positions through a half-mile in 45.19. Gaming Wizard chased alongside them in the three path, leaving Bravaro to save ground on the rail in fourth. When 23-1 longshot Max Money rallied from fifth to join the top flight around the turn, it forced Davis to swing the favorite five-wide to get a clear path. “Rode the rail and they came four across around the quarter-pole,” Davis said. “I just wheeled him out to the outside and he had another gear for me. He ran well.” Max Money and Fourth and One might have gotten the jump on Bravaro, but their advantage hardly lasted a moment after Joseph’s colt found a lane. With one powerful move, he easily picked off both remaining contenders and cruised to the wire. He completed the mile in 1:35.68 and paid $3.56 to win. “Just mentally, I was hoping he was there for me, to listen to me in this mile race today,” Davis said. “And that’s what he did. He was taking me along, but he was class about it.” Max Money, who finished third behind Bravaro in his debut last month, ran on to finish second, an admirable effort for trainer Mike Maker, who went on to win two of the next three races on the card. The maiden finished three lengths clear of Fourth and One, who outlasted front-runners Gaming Wizard and Time to Roll for third. Maid of the Mist Stakes If the competition got any tougher for Letmecounttheways in the $200,000 Maid of the Mist Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday, it certainly didn’t show. After a dominant 5 1/2-length debut victory in an $80,000 maiden special weight last month, the juvenile filly went straight to the front again and put a New York-bred stakes field to shame in nearly identical fashion. Jockey Joel Rosario, a passenger after ensuring a clean break from the outside post, laughed while describing his trip aboard the filly, who led by at least a length all the way around the track. She ran the opening quarter-mile in 23.53 seconds and half-mile in 46.75, extending her lead from there to win by six lengths at the wire. “It looked like one or two horses also had speed, but she’s so fast,” Rosario said. “I just decided to go home and let her do her thing. I was just hanging in there. It’s nice to ride those kinds.” Letmecounttheways was the second stakes winner for Maker early on the Aqueduct card. Before the race, the trainer said that he had always been confident in the New York-bred, who is now undefeated and untested in two starts. Stretching out to a mile for the first time, she completed the distance in 1:35.94, less than three-tenths of a second slower than Bravaro in the Sleepy Hollow. “She had a lot of speed and she hung in there really well,” Rosario said. “First time going long, so that was impressive.” Letmecounttheways went off at 2-5 and paid $2.92 to win.  Grazie, a 14-1 longshot trained by Todd Pletcher, was no match for the winner, but she made the most of a stalking trip under Eric Cancel to finish second in the field of eight. The fourth-time starter finished 2 1/4 lengths clear of Victory Hall, who held third all the way around in her first start for new trainer John Ortiz. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.