Sand Dancer has breakthrough win in Woodhaven Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Winter frustrations melted away on a beautiful spring Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct for Sand Dancer, who grinded out a neck victory over Archaggelos in the $100,000 Woodhaven Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf.

An up-close second behind Fifty, Sand Dancer took a short lead in midstretch under Trevor McCarthy and outlasted Archaggelos, under Dylan Davis, to the wire to record his first stakes victory. Fifty, the pace-setting favorite, finished another 2 3/4 lengths back in third, while Infield Is In finished last. Nine Route was a morning scratch by the track veterinarians.

Sand Dancer raced four times at Gulfstream Park during the winter with two seconds, a third and a ninth. Trainer Tim Hills said he felt Sand Dancer was compromised by bad trips in the last two starts.

“He had kind of a rough winter,” Hills said.

Nothing rough about Saturday, as McCarthy had Sand Dancer within a half-length of Fifty through splits of 25.28 seconds for the quarter, 49 for the half-mile and 1:12.84 for six furlongs. In the stretch, he inched past Fifty and was able to outlast Archaggelos, who, despite the addition of blinkers, still ran a little spotty.

Sand Dancer, a gelding by Eskendereya owned and bred by Pat Welsh’s Seagull Capital, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.25 and returned $5.40 to win.

“When they had a slow pace early I was really happy with that, because I knew [Archaggelos] would finish up behind me," McCarthy said. "With that easy pace I knew it was going to help us in the long run. When I needed him to be game he was game.”

Added Hills: “My horse is kind of a grinder, he doesn’t have a real big turn of foot.”

Turning up the backside, Archaggelos took a bump from Infield Is In and Davis said that put Archaggelos on the muscle a little bit, which may have taken away from his stretch kick.

“I felt like he tried, but he never got that finish,” Davis said. "He just kind of hung on me that last part.”