Morello stays unbeaten with Gotham Stakes victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Morello remained undefeated and helped further fuel the Kentucky Derby dreams of his connections with an authoritative 4 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.

After getting bumped at the start due to pressure to his inside, Morello, under Jose Lezcano, stalked the pacesetting Dean’s List before taking over from that one just outside the eighth pole. In the final furlong, Morello widened his advantage while under a hand ride from Lezcano.

Dean’s List held second by one length over Golden Code, who held off longshot Life Is Great by a head for fourth.

Glider finished fifth and was followed by Runninsonofagun, Fromanothamutha, Noneedtoworry, Bold Journey, and Rockefeller, the second choice who stumbled out of the gate.

The victory was the third in as many starts for Morello, a son of 2017 Preakness runner-up Classic Empire owned by Blue Lion Thoroughbreds, Craig Taylor, and the Diamond T Racing Stable of Victoria Taylor. He is trained by Steve Asmussen.

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The victory was worth 50 qualifying points toward the May 7 Kentucky Derby, a race his owners are now strongly considering.

“This is a game changer today,” said David Lyon, managing partner of Blue Lion Thoroughbreds. “We’re going to book some hotels. We’ll cancel if we have to, but we’re going to start making arrangements. We think we might have a Derby horse here, we really do. We’ll let Steve and Toby” – assistant trainer Toby Sheets – “make that decision for us.”

Secretariat (1973) is the last Gotham winner to also win the Kentucky Derby. Since 1980, Gotham starters are 0 for 47 in the Kentucky Derby. Easy Goer (1989) was the last Gotham winner to place in the Kentucky Derby while Aptitude (2000) finished second in both races.

Morello – named in honor of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello – has improved with every start. He won a six-furlong maiden race here Nov. 27 by 4 1/4 lengths and came back 10 weeks later to win the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield Stakes by five lengths. He had met only nine opponents combined in those two races.

Morello faced nine rivals Saturday, including the Bob Baffert-trained Rockefeller and a speedy Todd Pletcher-trainee in Dean’s List.

Breaking from post 9 under Lezcano, Morello did get bumped when Noneedtoworry broke outward and pushed Bold Journey into him. Morello quickly recovered and took up a stalking position outside of Dean’s List, who set fractions of 23.47 seconds for the quarter, 47.77 for the half, and 1:13.04 for six furlongs.

Entering the stretch, a confident Lezcano took a peek behind him, knowing he had Dean’s List measured. Lezcano pushed Morello by that one at the eighth pole and just guided him to the wire from there.

Morello covered the mile in 1:39.28 and returned $4 as the even-money favorite. He earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He’s been doing everything right, I think he’s one of the nicest horses I’ve ridden in the last three years,” Lezcano said. “I never even touched him with the whip yet.”

Sheets, who has overseen Morello’s training while he’s wintered in New York, said “each time we’ve progressed to bigger, tough competition but he’s taken them on. I think we have a very nice horse.”

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While neither Sheets nor Lyon would commit to Morello’s next start, the logical spot would be the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial going 1 1/8 miles here April 9.

It’s back to the drawing board for Rockefeller, who stumbled badly under Trevor McCarthy and chased the pace before retreating to last by the quarter pole.

“He stumbled out of the gate, got up, and stumbled again,” McCarthy said “That just seemed to wipe him out.”