Perfect Munnings gets perfect trip in Rego Park triumph

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Perfect Munnings had the perfect post to make his dirt debut and then got the perfect trip under Manny Franco to win Sunday’s $100,000 Rego Park Stakes by two lengths over stablemate Storm Shooter.

Lookin for Trouble nosed out Uno, the even-money favorite, to prevent trainer Todd Pletcher from sweeping the top three spots in the order of finish.

Windy Nations was fifth, followed by Blue Gator, New York One, and Halpert.

Both Perfect Munnings and Uno came into the Rego Park for New York-breds off first-out victories. Uno’s win came on the dirt while Perfect Munnings won his debut on turf.

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Byron Hughes, Pletcher’s New York-based assistant, said Perfect Munnings had trained well enough on dirt to give that surface a try.

Breaking from the outside in the eight-horse field, Perfect Munnings was bumped by Lookin for Trouble, but quickly moved into third position while Storm Shooter, on the inside, and Lookin for Trouble, on the outside, dueled on the lead.

Perfect Munnings was within 1 1/2 lengths of those two through a quarter in 23.35 seconds and a half-mile in 47.81. In the stretch, Storm Shooter was able to keep Lookin for Trouble at bay, but Perfect Munnings, responding to Franco’s left-handed urging, collared Storm Shooter at the sixteenth pole and edged clear for the victory.

Perfect Munnings, a son of Munnings owned by JP Racing Stable, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:20.24 and returned $9.60 as the third choice.

Both Hughes and Franco felt the outside draw was key to victory.

“I told Manny before the race that let’s try and use that post to our advantage,” Hughes said. “Manny did and got a clear trip.”

Said Franco: “He never ran on the dirt before, so I think the post helped me a lot and the break, he broke sharp, he took me right there behind those two horses and after that he did everything professional.”

Square Shooter rebounded nicely after getting in tight and fading back to sixth in the Notebook Stakes in his last start. Uno broke a little slow and that likely cost him a better placing.

“It looked like he got shuffled back, but he made a good run there,” Hughes said. “I thought he got third.”

The next stakes spot for 3-year-old New York-breds is the $100,000 Gander Stakes going a mile on Feb. 14.