Mr. Buff runs fast, wins Haynesfield by 20 lengths.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It’s not easy to be impressed when a 1-5 favorite wins a race. It was really hard not to be impressed with Mr. Buff, who rolled to a 20-length victory as the 1-5 favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Haynesfield Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.

Sent to the lead right out of the gate by Junior Alvarado, Mr. Buff reeled off splits of 23.22 seconds for the quarter, 45.76 for the half, 1:10.15 for six furlongs, and covered the mile in a quick 1:36.22 while being geared down by Alvarado.

“I didn’t think he’d win by 20,” said John Kimmel, who trains the 6-year-old Mr. Buff for owners/breeders Chester and Mary Broman. “I don’t know if I had a horse win by 20 lengths.”

Honor Up, last year’s Haynesfield winner, was second by a length over Syndergaard. Twisted Tom and Fleet Irish completed the order of finish. I Love Jaxson was scratched due to “washing out” at the receiving barn after shipping over from Belmont, according to trainer Linda Rice.

Perhaps I Love Jaxson got a glimpse of Mr. Buff in the receiving barn and became unraveled.

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Mr. Buff ($2.60) won his third consecutive stakes and eighth overall. He has won 14 races from 36 starts. The $59,125 first-place purse pushed Mr. Buff’s career earnings to $1,051,536.

“He’s a million-dollar earner now which is great,” Kimmel said. “I don’t know if I had a horse win 14 races; it’s hard to win 14 races.”

Cutting back to a mile after five consecutive races at 1 1/8 miles and breaking from the rail, Alvarado was intent on getting Mr. Buff to the lead right away.

“I was going to gun him no matter what because I want to make sure he wasn’t slow at the beginning,” Alvarado said. “Coming out of mile and an eighth races, I didn’t want him to fall asleep at the beginning, I just want to make sure I got him sharp out of there.”

Still, Alvarado was surprised to see they went the half-mile in 45.76 seconds.

“The way he feels to me he was going 48-and-change,” Alvarado said. “He wasn’t struggling at all. At the quarter pole, I asked him a little bit and he took off again. I would never think I was going 45 when he gave me that kick at the quarter pole.”

Mr. Buff has yet to win a graded stakes, having failed to run well in any of his three such tries. He could make his next start in the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior going 1 1/8 miles here on April 4.

Franco wins five on card

Jockey Manny Franco won five races from seven mounts on Saturday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct and has moved into a tie for second in the jockey standings.

Franco won the second on We Should Talk ($5.10), the fourth on Bertranda ($3.70), the fifth on Septimius Severus ($6.60), the seventh on Playwright ($7.50), and the ninth on Desbordes ($5).

Franco, a runaway winner of the 2018-19 Aqueduct winter meet with 98 wins, now has 48 so far this winter. He is tied with Eric Cancel. Both are four behind Jose Lezcano.

There are 17 programs left in the winter meet, which ends March 29.