Poster noses Aviator Gui in Remsen, capping big week for trainer Harty

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - As he watched the stretch run of Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen Stakes on a television set in the Aqueduct paddock, Eoin Harty, the trainer of Poster, did the lean done by many a horseplayer trying to will their horse to the finish line.

With Aviator Gui bearing down on him in the stretch, Poster did in fact reach the wire in time to win the Remsen by a nose, giving Harty his second graded stakes victory in a week with a 2-year-old soon to jump onto the 2025 Triple Crown trail.

“It’s a career week for me,” said Harty, who last week won the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs with First Resort. “You saw the way I was tilting watching that race, I thought you were going to have to reach over and pull me up.”

Poster was ridden by Flavien Prat who, with that win, established a single-year record for stakes victories with 80, eclipsing the record of 79 set by Irad Ortiz Jr. in 2022. Earlier on the card, Prat won his 79th stakes when he guided Tizzy in the Sky to victory in the Grade 3 Go for Wand. The two graded wins gave Prat 55 on the year, equaling the single-year record for graded stakes wins set by Jerry Bailey in 2003.

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Poster, a son of Munnings, had made his first two starts on turf, winning both. Harty said it was the ability to run around two turns that made him run the horse on turf to begin his career, but he always thought the horse would be successful on dirt. Poster is out of a dam who is a half-sister to 2006 Preakness winner and 3-year-old champion Bernardini.

“It was always a question because he hadn’t run on it, but he trained on it,” said Harty, who more recently had the horse training over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park. “I’ve had a lot of luck with horses training on a synthetic track and running on the dirt. His pedigree suggested he would like it and he did.”

Poster was last of six early, but within five lengths of the pace, which was established by Tux and pressed by Keewaydin, the latter being the 4-5 favorite. The half-mile went in a modest 48.59 seconds.

Prat, who identified Aviator Gui as a main contender despite his 9-1 odds, saw an opportunity going to the three-eighths pole to get the jump on that horse. It did mean going four-wide though, which kept Aviator Gui behind horses.

Poster made the front turning for home, and opened up a two-length lead at the eighth pole. But Poster got a little bit lost by himself and Aviator Gui, once moved into the clear by Manny Franco, began to launch a run. Aviator Gui lugged in a bit inside the eighth pole - similar to what Sierra Leone did for trainer Chad Brown in last year’s Remsen - and his late bid fell a nose short. Aviator Gui finished second by three lengths over Tux, who was followed by Studlydoright, Keewaydin and Gun Trader.

“I didn’t feel like we were going very quick, I had that horse inside of me, it looked like he had some horse,” Prat said. “Once I tip him out, I was going to try and get one run out of him. He made a very good move turning for home and then I think at the eighth pole he kind of looked around. He regrouped and he went on.”

Poster, like First Resort owned and bred by Godolphin Racing, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.37 and returned $11.60 as the third choice. Poster was given an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.

“He said that he made a premature move, he saw [Aviator Gui] was in some trouble and he decided to exploit the moment and he did,” Harty said. “He said if he didn’t make that move then it’d be a little too late. That’s why you employ guys like Prat.”

Brown, who has won plenty of races this year with Prat, credited him for “making that bold move on the turn.”

Brown could only laugh at the fact that, for the second year in a row - and third time in the last four years - he lost the Remsen by a nose. In the last two years, his horse lugged in during the stretch run.

“Lugging in in the Remsen again, that’s two years in a row,” said Brown, who did win this race in 2014 with Leave the Light On. “I never saw that from that horse before, so I got a little bit of work to do with him. He ran good, he showed that he belongs on the dirt going two turns.”

The disappointment was Keewaydin, who was sent off the 4-5 favorite coming off a maiden win going seven furlongs on Oct. 12. Distance was a question coming in, and it remains so coming out of the Remsen.

“No excuse, he was galloping along there with a clean face, I loved the trip, he just never fired today,” Brown said.

Poster earned 10 qualifying points toward next May’s Kentucky Derby. He will soon join First Resort back at Turfway Park, while Harty and Godolphin map out a plan for those two colts for 2025.

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