J Boys Echo likely for Blue Grass as next start

J Boys Echo, the authoritative winner of Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, will “most likely” make his next start in the Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 8, trainer Dale Romans said Sunday.

Romans said J Boys Echo came out of his 3 1/2-length victory in the Gotham in good order. He was flown by plane back to south Florida Sunday afternoon and will train at Gulfstream Park before moving north in a few weeks. Romans said he and the owners - Dennis Albaugh and his son-in-law Jason Loutsch who race as Albaugh Family Stable - “will definitely have a conversation about the Wood.”

Typically, Romans has used the Blue Grass as a steppingstone to the Kentucky Derby. Romans has won two of the last five runnings of the Blue Grass, including last year with Brody’s Cause, who was also owned by Albaugh.

J Boys Echo earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for his Gotham victory, one in which he rallied from fourth under Robby Albarado with a quick move into contention around the far turn, a move that he continued through the stretch. He covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:46.34.

Romans on Sunday afternoon said he was impressed with “how quickly and easily he gallops up to them down the backside and puts himself into the race. He wasn’t that far out of it at the half-mile pole, and then finished it off. He gallops under the wire and still ran fast.”

His victory in the Gotham, combined with his third in the Grade 3 Withers here in February and fourth in the Grade 3 Delta Downs Jackpot in November, gives J Boys Echo 53 qualifying points, more than enough to get into the May 6 Kentucky Derby.

Thus, Romans said, it is not necessarily important for J Boys Echo to win his next start.

“I’d like to see a race where he’s finishing running, that’s the key,” Romans said. “He doesn’t even have to hit the board, if he gives us something to hang our hat on to go forward with.”

Meanwhile, Cloud Computing and El Areeb, the second- and third-place finishers from the Gotham, could return here for the Wood Memorial on April 8.

Cloud Computing, making just his second career start after a maiden win sprinting Feb. 11, finished second by 7 1/2 lengths over El Areeb after sitting just off the early contested pace between El Areeb and True Timber.

"Huge effort coming back three weeks after his debut to run that well,” trainer Chad Brown said Sunday morning in south Florida. “He's very talented. I try not to rush horses and normally wouldn't come back in three weeks, but he dragged us to that race. It's not my style to come back quick, plus he was going from six furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth.

"The Wood, in 35 days, is the most likely target," Brown added.

El Areeb, winner of the Jerome and the Withers, had his four-race winning streak snapped in the Gotham. He set the pace under Trevor McCarthy, hounded by True Timber and Kendrick Carmouche, through a half-mile in 47.70 seconds and six furlongs in 1:13.59, which was quick for Saturday’s track.

Trainer Cal Lynch said the pace scenario “was suicide. That’s a hard thing to do. He’s good this morning. We don’t think any less of him.”

Lynch said he would “absolutely” give El Areeb another chance in a Kentucky Derby prep and mentioned the Wood as a possibility.

Glennrichment, who scratched from the Gotham, won a one-mile maiden race by 4 1/4 lengths on Sunday at Aqueduct and could be pointed to the Wood Memorial. A son of Pioneerof the Nile owned by Zayat Stables and trained by Rudy Rodriguez, Glennrichment covered the mile in 1:39.99 and earned an 80.

◗ All-sources handle on the Gotham card was $9,517,546, down 5.2 percent from last year’s figure of $10,043,533. Ontrack handle was $985,406, down 27.6 percent from last year’s figure of $1,361,830.

On Saturday, there were only nine races, with a total of 64 betting interests. In 2016, the 10-race card consisted of 72 betting interests.

This marks the fifth consecutive year that all-sources handle was down on Gotham Day. In 2012, when there were 11 races and 100 betting interests, all-sources handle was $14,341,070. There were 11 races on Gotham Day in 2013 and 10 races in 2014-16.

– additional reporting by Jay Privman