Nu What's New turns on the speed to take Hanshin Stakes
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The asset that won the Hanshin Stakes for Nu What’s New on Sunday at Churchill Downs is as old as American dirt racing – speed.
Nu What’s New has loads of it and has proven to be the rare horse who can carry a sprint pace over one mile. He did it winning the two-turn Oaklawn Mile on March 28 and went even faster on the way to a 1 1/2-length tally in the one-turn, one-mile Hanshin.
The horse’s trainer – he’s kind of old, too. But even in his mid-70s, Jimmy DiVito is going pretty strong. Nu What’s New’s on a roll, and on June 12, DiVito sent out a first-time starting 2-year-old named Balloteer to a two-length debut victory here. The colt earned a high-end 82 Beyer Speed Figure while deploying the same front-running style as Nu What’s New.
Luis Saez, the only jockey under whom Nu What’s New has won, rode the gelding for the fifth time and knew exactly how to go about his business in the Grade 3, $298,500 Hanshin: Stay out of the way.
Nu What’s New broke well from post 8, went forward, and had 3-1 favorite Imagination down inside him leaving the mile chute and going onto the main track. That didn’t last long. By the time Nu What’s New had gone an opening quarter-mile in 22.40, Imagination had fallen about two lengths behind.
Saez let Nu What’s New roll through a half in a blistering 44.68, Imagination and second-choice Tour Player just behind and outside him, but by the top of the homestretch, the chasers were finished, bottomed out.
Saez got to work before the three-sixteenths pole, floating Nu What’s New out to the center of the track to dissuade any outside closers, then steering back left as Coal Battle attempted to mount a rail rally. Owen Almighty tried to get involved in the final furlong, but Nu What’s New held firm.
Owen Almighty checked in a clear second, 2 3/4 lengths ahead of third-place Hall of Fame. Coal Battle faded late to fourth, the last mount in the long, successful career of jockey Corey Lanerie.
The Bob Baffert-trained Imagination finished ninth, beating only Tour Player, with third choice Dragoon a lackluster eighth.
Nu What’s New paid a generous $19.90 while clocking 1:34.06 over a fast track.
Why generous? Well, Nu What’s New, a 4-year-old gelding by Munnings out of Heavenly Scat, by Scat Daddy, came back in December from a two-month break a different horse than the one who went into that respite from racing. A five-race maiden, Nu What’s New won an Oaklawn maiden by 7 1/2 lengths with a 101 Beyer and came back in early February with a 103 trouncing first-level allowance foes.
In the Razorback Handicap he ran into Magnitude, who would subsequently win the $12 million Dubai World Cup and the $2 million Stephen Foster – but Magnitude was the only one in front of him that day. In the Oaklawn Mile, Nu What’s New defeated East Avenue, who went on to a highly rated win in the Salvator Mile at Monmouth. DiVito put a fifth-place finish May 1 in the Grade 2 Alysheba to a 1 1/16-mile distance and saw that Nu What’s New doesn’t quite stay in top company.
A two-turn mile like, say, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland? That’s something to consider – and DiVito, who trains Nu What’s New for Doubledown Stables, is doing just that.
DiVito has been around the racetrack forever, a head trainer for, literally, 50 years. Sunday, after his first Churchill stakes win since 2017, he recalled galloping horses for his father, trainer Pete DiVito, as an 18-year-old at Gulfstream Park.
He’s done plenty of good, too, even after his home track, Arlington Park, closed following a bare bones 2021 season. DiVito said he ran a Churchill division for about seven years, but found competent, reliable employees difficult to find. Now he winters at Oaklawn and otherwise bases at Hawthorne in Chicago, where Nu What’s New did all his prep work for the Hanshin. Hawthorne is hanging by a financial thread, going through a bankruptcy auction, in danger of closing. Nu What’s New’s only 4. Don’t close the door on him becoming a very serious dirt miler.
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