Dawn the Destroyer runs them down in Interborough

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In Dawn the Destroyer, Junior Alvarado knew he was riding the best horse in Friday’s $100,000 Interborough Stakes at Aqueduct. But for the first half-mile, it certainly didn’t feel that way.

Despite racing five wide down the backstretch, Dawn the Destroyer was still inside of another horse and she was none too happy about it.

“On the backside, she didn’t give me any feeling that I was going anywhere,” Alvarado said.

Able to move Dawn the Destroyer to the outside approaching the top of the lane, the dynamic changed. Dawn the Destroyer got comfortable, switched to her correct lead and ran down the pace-setting Sower in the last sixteenth to win the Interborough by 1 3/4 lengths. Sower was second by 1 1/4 lengths over her uncoupled stablemate Honor Way.

The victory was the fourth from 13 starts for Dawn the Destroyer, a 5-year-old daughter of Speightstown owned and bred by Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin. It was her second straight victory since undergoing throat surgery last summer.

Her connections were certainly not breathing easy watching the race unfold. Dawn the Destroyer was fifth while Yorkiepoo Princess set the pace, stalked by Sower. Those two ran a quarter in 23.16 seconds and a half-mile in 46.98.

Your Love was outside of Dawn the Destroyer early. Alvarado said he had to tap his filly on the shoulder a few times just to be fifth.

“Passing the three-eighths pole I was very worried,” he said. “I was expecting her to take me a little more.”

However, Alvarado said when he got Dawn the Destroyer outside, “I could feel the race was over. When I got her outside she completely changed. She picked up the bridle again and took off very nicely at the end.”

Dawn the Destroyer covered the seven furlongs in 1:25.74 and returned $4.80 as the favorite.

Linda Rice trained both Sower, the 5-1 fourth choice, and Honor Way the 39-1 seventh choice in the field of eight.

Sower was coming off a disappointing fifth in the Thirty Eight Go Go Stakes at Laurel, but had come out of that race with a “pretty bad respiratory infection” according to Rice. Honor Way was making her first start since owner Aron Yagoda bought her privately.

“We were thrilled to be third with that filly,” Rice said. “Happy with the way she ran, happy to get that elusive black type.”

Following Honor Way, the order of finish was Your Love, Yorkiepoo Princess, Miss Mimosa, Short Kakes, and Silent Sonet.