Bye Bye Melvin slips and slides to Saranac victory
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Six days after Mean Mary got run down by a neck in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes here, her younger brother Bye Bye Melvin gave their connections some consolation by running down Don Juan Kitten to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Saranac Stakes by a head at soggy Saratoga.
The Saranac was scheduled for one mile on the inner turf course. With rain in the forecast and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer scheduled for that same course later in the day, New York racing officials opted to move the Saranac to the Mellon turf course, where mile races are not typically run.
While the Saranac was run at a mile, it had a run-up of 175 feet.
The rain that racing officials feared actually arrived about 20 minutes before the Saranac, and the Mellon was downgraded from good to soft.
Jockey John Velazquez said Bye Bye Melvin didn’t want to go anywhere out of the gate as he tried to get him to the lead. Velazquez said he then took a hold of Bye Bye Melvin, who settled into third position early as Don Juan Kitten, under Kendrick Carmouche, set the pace stalked by Emoblden.
Velazquez kept Bye Bye Melvin along the inside, and though he said the horse was slipping on the soft turf for most of the way, Bye Bye Melvin was able to persevere once taken off the hedge in midstretch and wear down Don Juan Kitten.
“After I grabbed him he felt like he was more comfortable,” Velazquez said. “He was slipping and sliding, slipping and sliding, then he wanted to lug in down the stretch and I had to kind of get after him. He was slipping and sliding but good enough to get there.”
Don Juan Kitten, the 2-1 favorite, finished second by 2 1/2 lengths over Bodecream. Embolden was fourth followed by Irish Mias, Three Technique, L’Imperator, and Vanzzy.
Big Dreaming and Turn of Events were scratched.
The final time for the Saranac will be recorded as 1:39.92.
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Bye Bye Melvin is a son of Uncle Mo owned by Alex Campbell and trained by Motion, the same owner-trainer tandem that campaign Mean Mary, who had a four-race win streak snapped in that narrow Diana defeat.
“He’s kind of a late developer, this horse,” Motion said. “He’s been a little bit of project but I’m not surprised the way he ran. He slugs it out. He obviously handled the soft turf better than most.”
Bye Bye Melvin was coming off a second-place finish to Vanzzy in the Jersey Derby at Monmouth Park on July 26. Motion added blinkers to Bye Bye Melvin’s equipment on the advice of Cat McGee and Skylar McKenna, who work with the horse at Motion’s Fair Hill base.
“They felt it might help him focus a little bit,” Motion said. “I give them a lot of credit for how he ran today.”