Repo Rocks notches fourth consecutive triumph with Stymie Stakes
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Repo Rocks, despite being boxed in for nearly six furlongs of the one-mile race, found running room at the quarter pole and powered home a convincing 3 1/4-length winner of Saturday’s $125,000 Stymie Stakes at Aqueduct.
Miles D, one of several horses who had Repo Rocks hemmed in along the rail for a good portion of the race, finished second, a half-length in front of Far Mo Power. Bourbonic, Black Belt and Tough Tickets completed the order of finish.
The win was the fourth straight for Repo Rocks - all since being transferred to trainer Jamie Ness - and his first going one mile.
Ness was confident Repo Rocks could get the mile, but in looking at the Stymie field, he felt the horse would be on the lead early under Andrew Wolfsont.
“I spoke with Andrew before the race, to me there’s not a lot of speed, he’s the best horse, he breaks well, just put him on the lead,” Ness said by phone from his Chesapeake City, Md., home. “I thought that’s what he was doing, then he grabbed him and all of a sudden he was in trouble. Luckily, we got outside and he was able to overcome.”
Wolfsont said since Repo Rocks was attempting to get the one-mile distance for the first time, he wasn’t sure if going to the lead was the right move. He said he could have done it, but ceded the front to Black Belt, who, under Eric Cancel, did a good job of keeping Repo Rocks boxed in.
“In retrospect, I probably would have been fine doing that, just making him go early, he probably would have been fine with the pressure,” Wolfsont said. “I felt like they were going just quick enough to sit off of it. I wish they were going a little bit quicker, he would have been more comfortable. But he did relax enough and went on with it and had plenty of kick left.”
Repo Rocks, a 5-year-old gelding by Tapiture owned by Double B Stables, of which Stephen Fox is the managing partner, covered the mile in 1:36.75 and returned $4.30 as the even-money favorite.
Ness had expressed confidence since the Toboggan that Repo Rocks could get the mile. He said he trained the gelding hard between races because “he likes that, he takes it, and he wants more,” Ness said. “He played the way he practiced. I was expecting him to run as good a race as last time.”
Ness said he would seriously consider giving Repo Rocks a Grade 1 opportunity in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap going seven furlongs here on April 8.
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