Spirit of St Louis takes down course record with Danger's Hour victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York-bred Spirit of St Louis made a successful foray into open company Saturday at Aqueduct, rallying from sixth under Manny Franco to win the $150,000 Danger’s Hour, the first turf stakes of the year on the New York Racing Association circuit.

Spirit of St Louis got the jump on his Chad Brown-trained stablemate Equitize, the 3-2 favorite who was last of eight early, beating him by 1 3/4 lengths. It was 1 1/4 lengths back to Dakota Gold in third. Pioneering Spirit was fourth followed by Bring Me a Check, Heaven Street, Tidal Forces, and Masen.

The win was the fourth straight on the card for Franco, three of which came for Brown, who also wound up with four wins on the nine-race card.

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The final time of 1:33.57 over a good turf, eclipsed the inner turf course record of 1:33.67 set by Delaware in this same race in 2021. That horse was trained by Brown and ridden by Franco.

Spirt of St Louis, a 5-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro, improved his record to 6-2-0 from eight starts. He made his previous seven starts last year, ending his 4-year-old campaign with victories in the Ashley T. Cole and Mohawk Stakes at Aqueduct.

Spirit of St Louis sat relatively close to the pace in those races. Saturday, Franco had Spirit of St Louis sixth, about six lengths off the early pace established by Heaven Street and stalked by Masen.

Franco got Spirit of St Louis off the inside around the far turn, came five wide in the stretch, overtook Heaven Street inside the eighth pole, and won comfortably.

Spirit of St Louis, owned by Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Richard Schermerhorn returned $6.20 as the 2-1 second choice.

Franco said he was comfortable with his early position because he felt there was plenty of early speed in the field.

“He broke good, they ran away from me, I was pleased with my position,” Franco said. “By the three-eighths pole I just moved a little bit on him and he let me know I got horse under me. So, I was just waiting for the right time to move and he got it done.”

Equitize was made the 3-2 favorite off a course-record setting victory in a one-mile allowance at Tampa Bay Downs. Jockey Javier Castellano said Equitize wasn’t loving the “good” ground early.

“In the beginning, he was on the wrong lead, he tried to figure it out,” Castellano said. “Down the backside, he grabbed the bit, now he’s travelling better. When I asked him, he finished really good, galloped out really beautiful. It it was a mile and a sixteenth it would have been a different result.”

Brown told the New York Racing Association publicity department that Spirit of St Louis could make his next start in the Kingston Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga on June 9, while Equitize could stretch out to 1 3/16 miles in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan on June 8.

* One race before the Danger’s Hour, Brown and Franco teamed up to win a second-level allowance with Blazing Sevens, the 2023 Preakness runner-up who was coming off a nine-month layoff. Blazing Sevens had to rally wide around the far turn and into the stretch but still got the victory by a length.

He ran a mile in 1:34.55.

“He ran super,” Brown told the NYRA publicity department. “I'm really pleased with him. He had a wide journey and was fit enough to gut it out in a fairly quick time. We'll see how he comes out of the race and go from there, but I'll consider a race like the Met Mile.”

The Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap will be run on June 8 at Saratoga.

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