Mischevious Alex takes Gotham for third straight stakes win

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Mischevious Alex doesn’t know his name is spelled incorrectly. He doesn’t know that he’s not really bred to be a Kentucky Derby horse.

Mischevious Alex does know how to win, though, a trait he demonstrated for the third consecutive time Saturday at Aqueduct, taking the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes by two lengths. Fellow South Florida shippers Untitled and Attachment Rate, separated by a head, finished second and third, respectively.

It was the third straight victory in a one-turn stakes race for Mischevious Alex, who last month won the Grade 3 Swale Stakes by seven lengths at Gulfstream and last November won the Parx Juvenile Stakes by 9 3/4 lengths.

The victory earned Mischevious Alex 50 qualifying points to the May 2 Kentucky Derby. He’ll get the opportunity to prove he belongs in the race by trying two turns and 1 1/8 miles next in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial here on April 4.

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“We came in this year one furlong at a time,” said Chuck Zacney, whose Cash is King Stable owns Mischevious Alex with Glenn Bennett’s LC Racing. “We started at seven, went to eight, nine is the plan. Talking to Kendrick and John, we’ll tweak a few things and we’ll give it a go. The horse will tell us how far he wants to go.”

Zacney, who owned 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex, was referring to Kendrick Carmouche, who rode Mischevious Alex, and John Servis, who trains the son of Into Mischief.

Servis, who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Smarty Jones, said he’s always questioned Mischevious Alex’s distance capabilities, but knows it’s worth trying him two turns next out.

“I kind of questioned it even after the Swale,” Servis said. “But, he settles so nice. He hasn’t been on this kind of racetrack; this is a deep, heavy racetrack. I think he’ll move forward off of this. We’ll see.”

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Carmouche was riding Mischevious Alex for the first time and Servis alerted him that the horse would break sharp out of the gate, but that he is not a need-the-lead type.

Mischevious Alex indeed broke sharp, but Carmouche was in no hurry to go the lead. Mischevious Alex was fourth, about a length back, after War Stopper and Celtic Striker were a half-length apart through a quarter in 23.54 seconds.

Mischevious Alex was a head back of War Stopper after a half-mile in 47.26 before putting a nose in front at the five-sixteenths pole. Untitled, under Junior Alvarado, moved into second at that point.

Mischevious Alex hadn’t really been asked yet by Carmouche until he turned into the stretch. When Carmouche asked him for run, Mischevious Alex opened up a two-length advantage and held it to the wire through a final quarter of 26.30 seconds.

Mischevious Alex covered the mile in 1:38.80 – the second-fastest of six one-mile races on the card – and returned $5.50 as the 8-5 favorite.

Carmouche said Servis told him “the horse is a rocket out of the gate, so the best thing I could do is take advantage of that. He left there running. I didn’t want to panic him, I sat him in my hands. I had horses come [inside] and [outside] – I wasn’t in a rush. I was on the best horse I thought in my mind.”

Though Mischevious Alex won the Gotham, Zacney has tempered any case of Derby fever and is willing to take it one step at a time.

“One of the things John and I talked about with this horse and other is résumé building, and that’s kind of what we want to do,” Zacney said. “So we want to try and string as many Ws together as we can. We’re going to try and strategically pick places where they’re going to do well. The next step is the mile and an eighth here.”