Off to a red-hot start, Dunn sends out Golden Ice in tough spot
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It would be hard to start your training career more successfully than Benjamin Dunn, who has won with five of the first six horses he has sent out since going out on his own in mid-September.
Fresh off a victory in a Claiming Crown race at Churchill Downs with Double Your Money, the Parx-based Dunn will look to keep the good times rolling when he sends out Golden Ice in a third-level allowance/optional $100,000 claiming event that serves as Aqueduct’s feature on Thursday’s nine-race card.
Dunn has already had a winner in New York, having won a starter allowance with Double Your Money here on Oct. 18. That race followed Double Your Money finishing second in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx on Sept. 20, Dunn’s only loss since taking over some horses from his mother Felissa.
Golden Ice gave Dunn his first winner, taking a $25,000 starter allowance heat at Parx on Sept. 16. He came back to win a second-level allowance race going a mile on Oct. 28. Thursday’s race is at 1 1/8 miles, a distance at which Golden Ice, a son of Keen Ice, has yet to try. He almost entered Golden Ice in the same 1 3/16-mile starter allowance that Double Your Money won here in October.
“This horse could go as far as Double Your Money,” Dunn said. “I think the extra eighth of a mile will be to his advantage.”
Thursday’s race only came up with six horses, but there are some hard-knocking types, including Bendoog, Film Star, and Full Screen.
“The main thing we need is a little bit of pace, which I think we’re going to get,” Dunn said. “[Bendoog] is the horse to beat, but he’s on a losing streak and I got a horse on a winning streak. His numbers are getting better. He comes out of all his races like he hasn’t laid it all out there yet. I definitely think he can take another step forward.”
Francisco Martinez will be up from Parx to ride.
Film Star and Full Screen ran one-two in a similar spot as this going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga in August. Film Star, trained by Rob Atras, went to Parx and was soundly beaten in a stakes going a mile. Now he’s back out to nine furlongs, a distance at which he has won four times.
Full Screen finished fourth in a race where Bendoog was third going a one-turn mile in the slop at Churchill on Oct. 30. Trainer Brad Cox said he only shipped Full Screen back to Kentucky for that race because this condition wasn’t filling in New York. Cox said he likes getting the horse back out in distance.
Bendoog, trained by Bill Mott, did beat Film Star in this condition in May.
Le Gris, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, returns to dirt after an eighth-place finish in a starter allowance on turf. Warp Nine is coming out of an allowance/optional $40,000 claiming win at Laurel Park on Oct. 24 for trainer Harold Wyner.
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