Dynadrive pulls off another shocker in Lure
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Oh brother, they’re at it again.
In January 2021, owner Jason Provenzano and trainer Tom Morley claimed Tell Your Daddy for $40,000 and eight months later that horse won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Stakes on closing day of Saratoga.
In November 2021, Provenzano claimed Dynadrive -- a half-brother to Tell Your Daddy -- for $62,500 and on Saturday Dynadrive won the $135,000 Lure Stakes as the longest shot in the field at 23-1 to earn his way to the Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch here on Sept. 5.
Under a terrific ride from Eric Cancel, Dynadrive, 19 lengths off the pace after the first half-mile, twice split horses and was able to run down Sifting Sands to win the Lure by a head. It was 1 1/2 lengths back to Duke of Hazzard in third.
Public Sector finished fourth, followed by Safe Conduct, Somelikeithotbrown, South Bend, and T D Dance.
The win was the second straight for Dynadrive, both since being moved to Morley from Robertino Diodoro. The horse had made his first two starts off the claim for Diodoro and finished last in both of them. Dynadrive was diagnosed with equine protozoal myeloencephalitis [EPM] a disease that can attack the central nervous system.
“We treated him for EPM when he came in,” Morley said. “He looked like a horse that was struggling behind. It might have been neurological. We did the EPM test, it was enough of a positive that we treated him for it and he blossomed physically from it as well.”
On July 1, at Belmont, Dynadrive came off a 112-day layoff to win a second-level allowance race at 45-1. Saturday, he showed that was no fluke.
With Somelikeithotbrown, under Irad Ortiz Jr., running off to an early lead through fractions of 22.78 seconds for the quarter and 46.05 for the half, Dynadrive was seventh, some 19 lengths off the pace, in the eight-horse field. Around the turn Cancel guided Dynadrive between South Bend and T D Dance and had to decide whether to go outside or sit chilly.
Cancel stayed where he was, found a seam between a fading Somelikeithotbrown and Sifting Sands, under Manny Franco, and was able to get up for the narrow victory.
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“There wasn’t too much room at the beginning, then it opened up a little bit and I went for it,” Cancel said. “He tried to make it a little bit tight on me, but my horse is brave and once I got him in that spot he was really comfortable with it and he just kept on going.”
Dynadrive, a 5-year-old gelding by Temple City, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:39.83 and returned $48 to win. Last year, Tell Your Daddy finished second in the Lure before winning the Bernard Baruch.
“He’s a bigger horse than Tell Your Daddy with a bigger stride,” Morley said. “I was concerned he was genuinely a 10-furlong horse. He’s been showing more natural speed in his works in the morning without overdoing it. We felt like if they went a good pace in here it might set up nicely and they went way too fast. That was wonderful to see Somelikeithotbrown go those factions because only Pegasus could have held on doing that.”
The win was the third straight at the meet and fifth from 20 starts at the meet.