Vanzzy faces familiar rivals in Jersey Derby

Gufo has established himself as one of the leading 3-year-old turf runners of the season by winning four consecutive races, including the English Channel Stakes in May at Gulfstream and the Grade 3 Kent Stakes on the Fourth of July at Delaware.

With Gufo not running, three who finished behind him in the Kent plus a graded stakes winner he defeated in the English Channel meet in the $100,000 Jersey Derby going 1 1/16 miles on the Monmouth Park turf Sunday.

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Vanzzy, who finished third in the Kent after holding a narrow lead in the stretch, leads the trio emerging from that race. A son of Verrazano, who was a Grade 1/Group 1 performer on both dirt and turf, Vanzzy has tangled with some of the division’s notable names on both surfaces.

“He likes the Poly and he has pedigree for the grass,” trainer Michael Pino said. “That’s why I decided to try him on the grass this year.

“The Kent was one of his better races. He had to chase the speed and made the lead, but two good horses went by him. I could say maybe it was the mile and an eighth, but he was actually still running well.”

Vanzzy, who won the Display Stakes last December on Woodbine’s synthetic track, had an inauspicious start to his 3-year-old campaign, when he pressed the pace in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes, tired badly, was eased, and walked off under his own power. He returned to win the Rushaway Stakes by 4 1/4 lengths on the Turfway Polytrack. In his first start on turf, he finished fourth behind Decorated Invader in the Grade 2 Pennine Ridge on June 20 at Belmont before heading to the Kent. Decorated Invader, a Grade 1 winner as a juvenile, is unbeaten this season and is considered the divisional leader.

Vanzzy will be ridden Sunday by Paco Lopez.

Talking, whose only win came on debut last August at Monmouth, was fourth in the Kent. He is trained by Jonathan Thomas.

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Bye Bye Melvin was last of seven in the Kent. He is trained by Graham Motion, who will also send out New Jersey-bred Irish Mias, who won the Laurel Futurity last year. Irish Mias finished seventh in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on July 12 at Keeneland in his first start off a six-month layoff.

Irish Mias is out of Irish Score, a half-sister to multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Irish War Cry and to Grade 3 winner Irish Strait. Irish Strait runs Saturday at Monmouth in the Irish War Cry Handicap.

Island Commish won the Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy earlier this year at Gulfstream, with Irish Mias fourth. In his two starts since, Island Commish finished fourth to Gufo in the English Channel, his first start off a four-month break, and then was 12th in the War Chant at Churchill Downs.

Last year, Embolden won a stakes against Virginia-breds at Colonial Downs, and finished third in the Grade 3 Futurity Stakes at Belmont, won by Four Wheel Drive, the subsequent winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Embolden is making his first start since finishing third in the Springboard Mile on the dirt at Remington in December.