Green Light Go clearly best in Stymie; four-win day for Davis
Green Light Go went much too fast for his five rivals in the Stymie Stakes, part of a red-letter Saturday at Aqueduct for jockey Dylan Davis.
Green Light Go broke slightly outward from post 1 and took about a furlong to make the lead, but once there he controlled the $150,000 Stymie, drawing away to win by 3 1/4 lengths. The victory gave Davis four winners on the nine-race card.
During the summer of 2019, when he was trained by Jimmy Jerkens, Green Light Go ($3.10) won the Saratoga Special and finished second in the Grade 1 Champagne. He made two starts for Jerkens early in 2020 before his owner, Stronach Stables, moved Green Light Go into a different barn, and for the rest of 2020 and during a six-start 2021 campaign, Green Light Go’s career was stuck in idle. Back with Jerkens again last fall, Green Light Go came back from a three-month layoff to finish a close second in the Fall Highweight Stakes. It was that performance and a subsequent allowance-race win that yielded a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure that made Green Light Go such a prohibitive favorite Saturday, and he did not disappoint his many backers.
Green Light Go set splits of 22.99, 45.16, and 1:09.24, drifting out slightly in the final furlong but not, apparently, from fatigue since he widened his advantage in the final strides. Final time for one mile on a fast track was 1:35.43. Green Light Go, a homebred, is by Hard Spun out of Light Green, by Pleasantly Perfect.
Double Blessed closed mildly for second followed by Milton the Monster, Pirate’s Punch, Waxman, and Our Last Buck. Hanalei’s Houdini was a vet scratch. All starters carried 118 pounds except for Milton the Monster, whose jockey was one pound overweight.