Ny Traffic starts 4-year-old season with a bang

ELMONT, N.Y. – Ny Traffic, away from the races since a ninth-place finish in last October’s Preakness Stakes, returned Sunday with a solid 6 3/4-length score in a second-level allowance for New York-breds going seven furlongs. He covered the distance in 1:21.52 and earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.

“We were obviously hoping he would come back and win nicely, but he won better than we could have thought or hoped for,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said by phone Monday from Florida.

:: Enhance your handicapping with DRF’s Belmont Park Clocker Report

Joseph did not have an immediate next race in mind for Ny Traffic, whose claim to fame is coming within a nose of Authentic in last year’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Joseph all but ruled out running back in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 5, saying the timing would be “a bit too quick off of that kind of effort” and adding that he would talk to the diverse ownership group in a few days to determine a plan.

Joseph said he was planning to run Ny Traffic at Aqueduct last month, but the horse wasn’t training as well as he wanted so he backed off.

“In the last month, he trained really well,” Joseph said.

Meanwhile, the horse Joseph does plan to run in the Met Mile is Mischevious Alex, who worked a half-mile in 46.05 seconds Sunday morning at Gulfstream Park. It was the fastest of 54 works at the distance. It was his second work since he won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap by 5 1/2 lengths on April 3 at Aqueduct.

“He’s in good form,” Joseph said. “We’re excited to run him in the Met Mile. We feel like if all goes well, we’re going to go there with a good chance.”

Joseph said Mischevious Alex would do all his serious preparation for the Met at Gulfstream before vanning up six days before the race.

Joseph currently has nine horses stabled at Belmont. He will continue to transfer horses in and out of Florida and New York, including Town Classic, whom he planned to ship up for Saturday’s $150,000 Runhappy Stakes.

Town Classic, third to Basin in the Sir Shackleton Stakes last month, has 20 seconds from 49 starts. His last of six victories came in a $16,000 claiming race on Feb. 9, 2020, at Tampa.

◗ Fun fact: Exactly six years to the day that John Velazquez won the Kentucky Derby on Medina Spirit, he won the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs aboard Protonico, the sire of Medina Spirit. It was the only time Velazquez rode Protonico, who was trained by Todd Pletcher.