Sunny Ridge more likely to target Preakness or Belmont Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In Sunny Ridge, owner Dennis Drazin believes he has a nice 3-year-old who deserves the opportunity to run in a classic race. Whether that classic is the Kentucky Derby, well, that’s another story.

Noting that the Derby usually attracts a 20-horse field and many horses come out of that race needing time off, Drazin said Sunday morning he would be more inclined to skip the Derby and try to get Sunny Ridge to either the Preakness or Belmont Stakes, the other two legs of the Triple Crown.

“If I went to the Derby it’d be for the ego of running in the Derby,” Drazin said the day after Sunny Ridge won the Grade 3 Withers Stakes by three-quarters of a length at Aqueduct. “I don’t think it’s the right thing for the horse.”

As the head of the company that runs Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Drazin’s main goal for Sunny Ridge is the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational, likely to be run July 31.

“We have a goal of getting to the Haskell,” Drazin said. “It’d be nice to participate in that race.”

By winning the Withers, Sunny Ridge earned 10 Derby qualifying points and now has 18 - ranking him third - under a system Churchill Downs employs to determine the 20 starters for the Derby in the likely event the race draws more than 20 entrants.

Sunny Ridge, a New Jersey-bred gelding by Holy Bull, came out of the Withers in good shape, according to trainer Jason Servis, who looked over the horse Sunday morning at Belmont Park before heading back to south Florida, where he also has a stable.

Servis said the Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham at Aqueduct on March 5 or the Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial on April 9 would be under consideration for Sunny Ridge’s next start. Sunny Ridge had 10 weeks between the Delta Jackpot and the Withers and Servis said Sunday he might not want to wait another 10 weeks to run the horse again, meaning the Gotham may be preferable to the Wood.

“The Gotham might be a better spot,” he said. “I may try to make the Gotham.”

The Gotham is run at the same 1 1/16 miles as the Withers. In the Withers, Sunny Ridge pressed an extremely slow pace established by Vorticity, and edged clear from that rival late inside the final furlong after the two horses lightly leaned on each other.

Sunny Ridge, who at 2 finished second in the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 3 Delta Jackpot, covered the 1 1/16 miles in the Withers in 1:46.99. He was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 87.

Vorticity finished second in the Withers after finishing second in the Jerome. Trainer Chuck Lawrence said he was pleased with the performance and would wait a while before deciding whether to return for the Gotham or not.