Sunny Ridge cutting back to sprint in Toboggan Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – That trainer Jason Servis entered a horse in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct is hardly surprising. That his starter is Sunny Ridge, well, that is somewhat surprising.

Sunny Ridge has won 8 of 28 starts and earned $1.4 million in a career that began in June 2015. He has never raced at seven furlongs, the distance of Toboggan. Moreover, Servis has won the last two sprint stakes on this circuit with Happy Farm, who won the Grade 3 Fall Highweight, and Firenze Fire, who won the Gravesend, both in December.

Sunny Ridge, meanwhile, is coming out of a victory in the Richard Small Stakes, a two-turn, 1 1/8-mile race on Nov. 30 at Laurel Park.

“I kind of always wanted to try him seven-eighths,” Servis said Wednesday by phone from South Florida. “He always breaks on top. He’s a good gate horse, he breaks running.”

Sunny Ridge drew the rail in a field of nine entered in the Toboggan, a race that marks the return of multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control. Mind Control is making his first start since he won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens last Aug. 24 at Saratoga.

Sunny Ridge, a 7-year-old gelding by Holy Bull, is 2 for 10 in races contested around one turn. He won his career debut going 4 1/2 furlongs at Monmouth in June 2015. In July 2018, he won the State Dinner Stakes going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont.

In between, he’s won six stakes around two turns, though he’s run some strong races going a one-turn mile. As a 2-year-old, he finished second to Greenpointcrusader in the Grade 1 Champagne. In 2018, he finished third to Patternrecognition in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile after finishing second behind that one in the Grade 2 Kelso.

In two of the last three winters here, Sunny Ridge has run in the Jazil Stakes, which this year will be held Jan. 25. Servis will run Leitone, winner of the Claiming Crown Jewel, in that race.

Meanwhile, Servis said Firenze Fire and Happy Farm are both candidates for the Grade 3, $250,000 General George on Feb. 15 at Laurel.

Breaking outside of Sunny Ridge in the Toboggan, in post order, are American Anthem, Arch Cat, Nicodemus, T Loves a Fight, Bon Raison, Still Having Fun, Mind Control, and The Sicarii. Arch Cat and Still Having Fun are cross-entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Fire Plug Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs at Laurel Park.

Saturday’s Aqueduct card also includes the $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies. The race marks the return to the races of Fierce Lady, a stakes-winning 2-year-old filly of 2019 trained by Dermot Magnier. Fierce Lady has been off since running second in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on Sept. 18. She drew the rail on Saturday.

Big Q, who ran sixth as the favorite in the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Stakes on Dec. 15, will look to rebound. She drew post 2.

Outside of Big Q, in post order, are, Firenze Freedom, Myawaya, Violent Point, Ancient Brown, A Freud of Mama, and Playtone.