In the day’s second feature, Fellow Crasher rallied in the stretch to capture the $65,000 Tyro Stakes for 2-year-olds.
No one picked all six winners in the 60-Minute Six wager, and there will be a carryover of $46,881 into next Saturday’s 60-Minute Six pool.
The Skip Away serves as a prep for Monmouth’s $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Breeders’ Cup Stakes(G3) to be run on Aug. 16
Bruce Levine, Monmouth’s leading conditioner, trains Shopton Lane, a 4-year-old son of Quiet American who had Jose Lezcano, Monmouth’s leading rider, aboard for the first time.
Judiths Wild Rush completed the $84.40 exacta and paid $9.20 and $6.20 after finishing nearly two lengths in front of Sinners N Saints, who paid $5.20 to show.
The race was a surprise right from the gate as Shopton Lane, not Gottcha Gold as expected, took command and opened a daylight lead around the first turn. He continued to lead through fractions of :23 1/5, :46 1/5 and 1:10 3/5 and was never seriously threatened to the wire.
“I knew my horse has early speed, so I just went to the front from the gate,” Lezcano said. “Gottcha Gold didn’t go for the early lead, so I was able to get my horse to relax up front. He turned it on for me when I asked him.”
In the Tyro Stakes, a prep for the Grade 3 Sapling to be run here on Aug. 31, Fellow Crasher ranged up into contention entering the stretch and zoomed past the front-running 1-10 favorite Notonthesamepage at the eighth pole, drawing off to score by two and a half lengths.
The winner, trained by Anthony Dutrow and ridden by Joe Bravo, raced the five and a half furlongs over a fast main track in 1:03 1/5 and paid $11 to win as second choice in the field of three 2-year-olds. Rapid Redux was 12 1/4 lengths farther behind in third.
Notonthesamepage showed his considerable speed early, clipping off fractions of :21 4/5 and :44 2/5. Bravo moved Fellow Crasher into striking position rounding the turn and once straightened away, pounced on the leader and then drew off in the final sixteenth.
This was the second straight win for Fellow Crasher, a son of Graeme Hall who broke his maiden at Philly Park on July 6. He is owned by the partnership of Dubb, Grant & Bayard.
“I didn’t know what I was sitting on until the gates opened,” Bravo said. “He broke well and relaxed for a bit. He really turned it on for me in the lane when I got into him. This is a really nice colt.”