Fair Grounds: Skyring by a neck in Mervin Muniz Memorial
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
NEW ORLEANS – After controlling the pace from the start, Skyring held off a late bid from Amira's Prince to win the Grade 2, $300,000 Mervin Muniz Memorial Handicap by a neck Saturday on the Fair Grounds turf.
"The punch that my horse gave me, I thought they're really going to have to go fast to run him down,'' said Joe Rocco Jr., who rode Skyring for Calumet Farm and trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
Breaking from the outside in a field of five older horses, Skyring ($17.40) immediately grabbed the lead. The fractions, on a course rated “soft,” were moderate – 25.10 seconds for the first quarter-mile, 50.79 for the half, and 1:15.06 for six furlongs.
"He was pretty comfortable the whole race,'' Rocco said.
Burn the Mortgage stalked Skyring much of the way, and Amira's Prince, the favorite, settled in third in the early running.
"Hindsight is 20/20,'' said Mike Smith, who rode Amira's Prince. "I outsmarted myself. I thought I had the horse to beat [Real Solution] behind me. If I followed the winner, I probably would have beat him a neck.''
Instead, Skyring held on, winning for the fifth time in 28 starts and scoring his second graded stakes victory. He won the Grade 2 Dixie Handicap on the Preakness undercard last year.
"I knew Mike’s horse was coming for me, but even though the stretch here is so long, I thought we were going to get there,” Rocco said.
Burn the Mortgage, a former claimer, finished third, three lengths behind Amira's Prince and 3 1/2 lengths in front of Real Solution, who was racing for the first time since finishing ninth in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Potomac River finished last. Mister Marti Gras, who was cross-entered in the New Orleans Handicap, was scratched.