Brooklyn Strong sticking around for Withers

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Brooklyn Strong, the Grade 2 Remsen winner, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 6, trainer Daniel Velazquez said Wednesday.

While Friday’s $100,000 Jerome Stakes, the first race of 2021 that offers qualifying points to the May 1 Kentucky Derby, was never really a consideration for Brooklyn Strong, there was some thought to heading to South Florida for his next start. Velazquez said that while a trip to Florida may be considered later in the winter, the Withers makes the most sense for Brooklyn Strong to kick off his 3-year-old campaign. The Withers, like the Remsen, is run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns.

“The Withers definitely makes sense, it’s a good target race,” Velazquez said. “That can set us up moving forward for the Derby and all that stuff.”

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Brooklyn Strong, a New York-bred son of Wicked Strong, won the Remsen by a neck over Ten for Ten for his third win from four career starts. Brooklyn Strong has moved from Delaware Park to Parx to train for the winter, and Velazquez said he’s been going easy with Brooklyn Strong as he gets acclimated to that surface.

“We’re probably going to get back into heavy training again in a week,” Velazquez said. “It was a big effort, there was nothing targeted immediately, so we let him unwind a little bit.”

Velazquez said that while he and co-owner Mark Schwartz have fielded offers from people looking to buy Brooklyn Strong, no sale has been done.

Meanwhile, Velazquez said his New York-bred filly Laobanonaprayer, an eight-length winner of the Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series on Dec. 6, is being pointed to the $100,000 Franklin Square for 3-year-old New York-bred fillies on Jan. 16.

While Velazquez said he toyed with the idea of pointing her to an open-company race that offered qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks, he prefers to keep Laobanonaprayer against statebreds for the time being. After the Franklin Square, there is the $100,000 Maddie May Stakes for New York-breds going a mile on Feb. 20.

“Right now, there’s not a lot of good New York-breds out there and we feel like we go into those New York-bred races probably being the best filly in the race,” Velazquez said.

Prior to her victory in the Fifth Avenue, Laobanonaprayer won the Maid of the Mist Stakes for New York-breds by 5 1/2 lengths at Belmont on Oct. 24.