My Boy Tate splashes to NYSS Thunder Rumble win

My Boy Tate returned from a 13-month layoff and won the $155,550 Thunder Rumble Division of the New York Stallion Stakes on a sloppy Sunday at Aqueduct.

Last started on Oct. 20. 2018, My Boy Tate rumbled home from mid-pack under Manny Franco to comfortably defeat late-closing T Loves a Fight in this seven-furlong race restricted to horses by registered New York stallions. My Boy Tate is by Boys At Tosconova and out of Backlash, by Sharp Humor, and was bred by his trainer, Michelle Nevin, who owns My Boy Tate with Little Red Feather Racing.

Manny Franco rode the winner, who paid $10.60 and was timed in 1:24.39 over a sloppy racing surface. Binkster finished third, more than two lengths behind T Loves a Fight, as 2-1 favorite Gold for the King, who had won the 2018 renewal of this race, came up empty in the stretch and checked in seventh.

Dark Money and Arthur’s Hope dueled for the lead through what seemed like reasonable fractions of 22.91 and 46.51 seconds, but second-choice Arthur’s Hope faded to fourth and Dark Money wound up last. Franco settled My Boy Tate in fifth along the inside, came off the fence before the quarter pole to follow Binkster’s three-wide move, and steered his mount to the outside to hit the front at the eighth pole and go on to a 1 3/4-length victory.

My Boy Tate looked like a real comer, at least in the New York-bred ranks, when he won five straight sprints in 2017 and 2018, including two six-figure stakes. He’s 5 now, but My Boy Tate still has run – and Nevin was able to dredge a lot of it out of him following an extended vacation.