Mr. Brix saves the day for Gonzalez in New York Claiming Championships

The New York Claiming Championships on Saturday at Aqueduct shared the wealth as nine different trainers won races on a card that offered $620,000 in purses.

The only trainer to win twice on the program, which consisted of a variety of starter-allowance races much like the Claiming Crown, was Rudy Rodriguez, who won the inaugural $45,000 Dads Caps and sent out the exacta in the $60,000 More to Tell.

Rodriguez trained Dads Caps to victories in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap in 2014 and 2015. He won the race with Its All Relevant ($2.40). He came back five races later to win with Potomac ($15.40), who just got up to defeat another of his horses, Haul Anchor, by a head. The $2 Rodriguez exacta returned $71.

Jockey Eric Cancel won three races, and jockeys Dylan Davis and Jose Lezcano each won two Saturday.

The richest and final race of the day, the $80,000 Caixa Eletronica, went to Maryland horseman Claudio Gonzalez and jockey Kendrick Carmouche, who teamed up with Mr. Brix ($21.80).

Mr. Brix benefited from a sweet ride by Carmouche, who saved ground every inch of the seven-furlong race and took the lead inside Sudden Surprise in upper stretch en route to a 1 1/2-length score.

"Kendrick rode a great race," Gonzalez said. "He waited inside, and that decision won the race."

Mr. Brix saved the day for Gonzalez, the winningest trainer in Maryland in 2017 and 2018. The seven other horses he shipped north from Laurel Park for the Claiming Championships failed to win, with many of them appearing to underperform.

"I'm happy now, but I was getting very depressed," Gonzalez said. "My horses were just not getting hold of the track. They were spinning their wheels."

The Caixa Eletronica was Gonzalez's third win in the New York Claiming Championships. In the inaugural 2015 season, he won the first race of the day, the Karakorum Elektra, with Before You Know It. In 2016, he won the first-race Videogenic with Sweet On Smokey.

On Saturday, he got in the last word.

One of the high points of the afternoon came in the 1 3/8-mile Stud Muffin, when the 10-year-old former stakes runner Turco Bravo took the lead under Davis entering the stretch and then showed his heart by holding off all comers to win by a length.

The Chilean-bred, who was claimed for $25,000 by trainer Mertkan Kantarmaci in January, recorded his 18th career win and has always been at his best going a marathon distance. He won the 1 3/4-mile Birdstone at Saratoga in 2016 after finishing second in it the prior year. He won the 1 3/8-mile Flat Out at Belmont Park in 2016, and the 1 1/8-mile Stymie at Aqueduct in 2015 and 2016.

Total handle on the New York Claiming Championships was $7.91 million, with more than $1 million bet ontrack.