Red Mile: Steely Knife upsets, Better Is Nice delivers in Bluegrass colt pace

Steely Knife and Better Is Nice both powered first over and persevered to win in their respective divisions of the $197,000 Captaintreacherous Bluegrass Stakes, for 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings, on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 28) at The Red Mile.

Steely Knife (driven by Dexter Dunn) built momentum from a first-over push and rolled home a 1:52 2/5 winner in the first division of the Captaintreacherous Bluegrass Stakes.

Dunn slid to the pylons to race fourth to a 28 3/5 first quarter cut by Cupid Shuffle (Yannick Gingras), who Gingras tried to wrangle back despite coasting to a 56 half. Steely Knife started to gather speed moving for the final turn and angled off the pylons, vaulting forward as Cupid Shuffle raced on fumes by three-quarters in 1:23. Cupid Shuffle promptly folded while Steely Knife powered forward and held firm from a late rallying Mccrunch (Andy McCarthy), who sat an antsy pocket and burst through an inside seam to challenge late. Mccrunch had to settle for second, beaten a neck, while Captain Luke (Scott Zeron) – the 3-2 favorite – saved ground throughout and held third from Total Stranger (Dan Noble) as he swooped from last for fourth.

Trained by Ron Burke, Steely Knife has now won six races from 29 starts and banked $264,097 for owners Burke Racing Stable, Knox Services, Philip Collura and J & T Silva—Purnel & Libby. The Always B Miki colt paid $27.90 to win.

Better Is Nice (Andy McCarthy) kept finding more in a damp stretch sprint to down pacesetter Women Layer (Todd McCarthy) and win the second division of the Captaintreacherous as the even-money favorite.

McCarthy positioned Better Is Nice into fourth while Women Layer circled from the pocket for the lead after a 29 2/5 first quarter. Women Layer shuffled Dancin Champion (David Miller) into second up the backside and coasted to the half in 58, where McCarthy decided to lift Better Is Nice into action. Once off the pylons, Better Is Nice lunged forward with Women Layer in his sights, accelerating to three-quarters in 1:25 4/5. Better Is Nice continually intensified pressure on a game Women Layer all through the stretch before eventually overpowering his rival and edging to a half-length victory in 1:53 1/5. Huntingforchrome (Tim Tetrick) closed from last for third and Number Cruncher (Scott Zeron) finished fourth.

“Starting off, he was a little slow to come and we brought him down to Oak Grove,” trainer Tony Alagna said. “He won the [Kentucky Sire Stakes] final there, and then when he came back over here, he started to spark back up again. Then he hit a lull where he wasn’t as sharp, but in his last couple of starts he’s been as good as ever.”

Alagna co-owns Better Is Nice, a colt by Bettor’s Wish, through his Alagna Racing LLC with Pryde Stables Inc. and Birnam Wood Farms. He won his 12^th race from 25 starts, has now banked $973,433 and paid $4.20 to win.

Each division of the Captaintreacherous Bluegrass was sponsored by the Captaintreacherous Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms.

-edited release (from Red Mile)