Sadler's Joy delivers a victory in Red Smith

Heavily favored Sadler’s Joy broke open the Red Smith Stakes past the three-sixteenths pole and cruised to an easy two-length victory in the Grade 3, $200,000 grass race for older horses Saturday at Aqueduct.

Sadler’s Joy has seemed at times like a horse who prefers running with horses than away from them at the end of races, but on a class drop from a steady diet of Grade 1 and Grade 2 races, Sadler’s Joy had no trouble asserting his superiority Saturday.

Breaking a 10-race losing streak dating to March 2018 and winning for only the third time in 18 starts, Sadler’s Joy ran 1 3/8 mile on good turf in 2:15.76 and paid $4.70 to win. Javier Castellano had the mount for owner-breeder Woodslane Farm and trainer Tom Albertrani.

Red Knight raced head and head with the eventual winner after a mile but couldn’t match his powerhouse finish while still turning in a solid performance to finish second, 1 1/2 lengths in front of Dot Matrix. Postulation finished fourth while second choice Marzo ran into upper-stretch trouble and had no turn of foot once clear, checking in eighth. Glorious Empire continued racing well below his peak 2018 form and faded to last of 11 after contesting a solid pace with 10th-place finisher Red Right Hand.

Sadler’s Joy ran behind eight horses and in front of two around the second of three turns and down the backstretch into the final bend, but with a half-mile to race, Castellano let his mount out a notch and Sadler’s Joy sprang into action. Coming wide on the turn he accelerated stride by stride and nearly had hit the front as the field swung into the homestretch. Cornering as professionally as one would expect from a high-class 6-year-old making his 26th start, Sadler’s Joy hit the front and never wavered, striding with the verve of a horse half his age through the final furlong for a definitive victory.

Sadler’s Joy, a horse by Kitten’s Joy out of Dynaire, by Dynaformer, was slow to make his 2019 debut, only starting off in July, but Albertrani has gotten him back to a level comparable to 2017, when he was a close fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and 2018, when he finished a distant third in the same race. Sadler’s Joy was a close second in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga this summer and a solid third in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, but this year his connections eschewed a Breeders’ Cup start for this far softer spot. Sadler’s Joy made the most of it.