Nessuna Pagina survives foul claims, takes Spectacular Bid by nose
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Nessuna Pagina overcame propping at the quarter pole, getting passed in upper stretch and objections from the two riders who finished immediately behind him to win Saturday’s $150,000 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Series by a nose at Aqueduct.
After zipping an opening half-mile in 44.64 seconds under Kendrick Carmouche, Nessuna Pagina appeared to prop for a step or two by the quarter pole. Jockey Jaime Rodriguez on pace-pursuer Illmatic took up slightly, but got his horse going immediately to the point where he put a head in front of Nessuna Pagina at the three-sixteenths pole. Nessuna Pagina battled back along the inside and Illmatic was between horses as race favorite Spirit of New York was three wide in the stretch. Little separated the three horses coming to the wire and space tightened up, but Nessuna Pagina got his nose in front of Illmatic, who was a nose better than Spirit of New York.
Jaime Rodriguez, the rider of Illmatic, and Manny Franco, the rider on Spirit of New York, both claimed foul against Carmouche and Nessuna Pagina, but the stewards let the result stand.
Carmouche said Nessuna Pagina was running easy around the turn until he got to the quarter pole.
“It was propping, it was a little shifting, I didn’t know what he was going to do, I just had to stay still,” Carmouche said. “You can’t panic or he’s going to jump the fence. Once he saw those horses come outside, I said ‘I’m okay now.’ You could feel him take the bit and pull me.”
Rodriguez felt his horse was impacted by Nessuna Pagina’s propping at the quarter pole.
“His horse, right when he hit the quarter pole, broke out a little bit, I had to stop my momentum a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “And then once we hit the top of the lane my horse came running when he felt [Spirit of New York] outside.”
Nessuna Pagina, trained by Paul Barrow, won for the third time in as many starts, though this was his first start on turf. He had won two dirt sprints at Finger Lakes. He is by Honest Mischief - who sired the top three finishers - out of a dam who produced one synthetic surface winner but none on turf.
Still, that was enough for Barrow to give Nessuna Pagina a try on the turf.
“I thought he was built conformationally like he’d like the grass,” Barrow said. “He’s got some natural speed, I think we got a little lucky with an outside post, but the way he broke he might have been in front anyway. If you watch his races at Finger Lakes, he doesn’t really need the lead, he just kind of takes you there. Speed is always dangerous on the grass.”
Barrow praised Carmouche for not panicking when Nessuna Pagina propped.
“A lot of riders will take up and say ‘Hey, what’s wrong?’ " Barrow said. “Kendrick felt him out for a few strides, got him back engaged and the horse showed a little determination down the stretch, and that was nice to see also.”
Nessuna Pagina covered the six furlongs in 1:08.58 and returned $21.58 as the fifth choice in the scratch-reduced field of six. Nessuna Pagina translates to “no page” in Italian, according to owner John Kosciak, who bought this horse as a yearling for $20,000 at the OBS March sale in 2025.
“I didn’t want to name him “No Page,’ " Kosciak told NYRA publicity. “But the sexy version of it is “Nessuna Pagina.’ "
An undefeated horse with wins on multiple surfaces? Nessuna Pagina is making his own page look pretty good.
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