McCarthy, Sterling Silver ride the rail to Franklin Square triumph
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Trevor McCarthy has been making all the right moves lately at Aqueduct. On Saturday, the right move was to stay on the rail as long as possible.
That’s exactly what McCarthy did aboard Sterling Silver, riding the rails from the start until the three-sixteenths pole, where he angled the filly out and ran down pacesetting Sandy’s Garden to win the $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies by 2 1/4 lengths. Sandy’s Garden was second by 2 3/4 lengths over Thinking It Over.
The win was the fourth on the day for McCarthy. It was the second time in the last three cards here McCarthy has won four races. On Thursday, he won three. Combined, McCarthy has won with 11 of his last 16 mounts at Aqueduct. He has moved into second in the rider standings with 25 wins, one behind Kendrick Carmouche.
“It’s probably my best run ever, I mean it’s pretty crazy,” said McCarthy, who has ridden 1,667 winners since his career started in 2011.
In Sterling Silver, McCarthy was riding a filly he had ridden to a debut nose victory here last Nov. 28. Sterling Silver was a bit immature that day, lugging in a bit in the stretch. On Saturday, she was much more professional, racing in midpack while Sandy’s Garden set splits of 22.16 seconds for the quarter and 45.25 for the half, being chased by Thinking It Over.
McCarthy said he didn’t want to come off the rail because it had been by far the best place to be on Saturday over what was a fast-playing surface.
“I just wanted to stay there as long as I could, it’s definitely hard to come off it when it’s been really good,” McCarthy said. “But when [I came] to the stretch and I had that much horse, I just had to angle her out.”
Sterling Silver, a daughter of Cupid owned by Mark Anderson and trained by Tom Albertrani, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:16.28 and returned $15.40.
The Franklin Square was run Saturday after being postponed from Jan. 15, when that card was canceled due to extreme cold.
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