Lightly raced Happy Medium looks stakes-bound
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While trainer Michelle Nevin sends out two of her hard-knocking, stakes-winning New York-bred sprinters in Sunday’s $150,000 Thunder Rumble division of the New York Stallion Series, she appears to have a top-quality sprinter for the open-company stakes to be run in New York this winter.
Happy Medium, a 3-year-old gelding by Runhappy, has gone 2 for 2 this fall since returning from a six-month layoff. On Sept. 30, he won a six-furlong maiden race over a fast Belmont main track by 9 1/4 lengths, earning a 103 Beyer Speed Figure.
On Nov. 13, he came back to win a first-level allowance by five lengths over a sloppy Aqueduct surface, earning a 93 Beyer.
Nevin has options for Happy Medium, including the $100,000 Gravesend on Dec. 19 or a second-level allowance race the previous day.
“We’re not under any pressure,” said Nevin, who trains Happy Medium for Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable. “We have time to take a look.”
Moreover, Nevin doesn’t view Happy Medium as merely a sprinter. She may look to stretch him out, at least to a one-turn mile, at some point during the winter.
“He can lead you that way,” Nevin said. “For right now, he’s not doing anything wrong so we don’t have to go changing anything.”
Though Happy Medium may not have been as dazzling in his allowance win as he was in his maiden victory, Nevin was quite pleased with the fact he handled the sloppy track.
“What more could he do? He won over a track that he had never experienced before, he did all the right things,” Nevin said. “Is it his ideal track? I don’t know, but he went and got it done again.”