Uno Emayo overcomes wide trip to win New York Stallion Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Two starts and two months ago, Uno Emayo was running in a $5,000 claiming race at Laurel Park. On Monday, he became a stakes winner at Saratoga.
Uno Emayo, under red-hot jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., persevered to the wire after being floated wide turning for home and won a three-way photo over Rooftop View and Cloud Control to take the $100,000 Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Stakes by nose.
Rooftop View finished second by a head over Cloud Control, the 4-5 favorite. Go Go Lucky and Cuckoo’s Saloon completed the order of finish.
It was the third straight win and the second in as many turf starts for Uno Emayo, a gelding by D’ Funnybone owned by Carl Lizza Racing Stables and trained by Rudy Rodriguez.
“We should have put him on the turf sooner than we did, for sure,” said Lizza, who shares a name with his uncle Carl Lizza, who ran horses under the Flying Zee Stables banner before his death five years ago.
Uno Emayo hadn’t been successful beyond 5 1/2 furlongs and was trying a mile for the first time on turf after two sound defeats at that distance on dirt.
Under Ortiz, Uno Emayo stalked the pacesetting Cuckoo’s Saloon until the top of the stretch, where Cuckoo’s Saloon began to drift out under Manny Franco.
That floated Uno Emayo four to five wide and left a large opening for Cloud Control and Rooftop View. As those two fought for the lead in midstetch, Uno Emayo came on again and just got his nose down on the wire in front of Rooftop View and Luis Saez.
“We were going a little slow, I was on top of him, Manny tried to correct him, but the horse was getting out bad,” said Ortiz, who added that Uno Emayo “lost a lot of ground on the turn, and he kept coming, and he got there in time.”
Rodriguez credited Lizza for making him run Uno Emayo in this spot instead of another claiming race.
“I said, ‘We have to go to Saratoga. He’s a New York-bred. It’s the best time of year – you got to race at Saratoga,’ ” Lizza said. “So, here we are.”
Uno Emayo covered the mile in 1:35.37 and returned $14.80 to win.