Sudden Surprise Tries Two Turns in Gander
By Frank Angst
Courtesy BloodHorse.com
Photo: Coglianese Photos
Sudden Surprise will try two turns for the first time in the Gander Stakes.
With plenty of lucrative route races approaching for 3-year-olds, Repole Stables' Sudden
Surprise will try two turns for the first time Feb. 6 in the $100,000 Gander Stakes for New
York-bred sophomores at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Facing other New York-breds, Sudden Surprise has won five of his first six starts, including four
stakes scores. But the lone loss for the son of Giant Surprise came at his longest race to date,
the one-turn mile Sleepy Hollow Stakes Oct. 15 at Belmont Park, where he finished fourth.
Since that effort Sudden Surprise has registered two stakes wins at Aqueduct for trainer Todd
Pletcher—the six-furlong Notebook Stakes on the Aqueduct main track before he closed the year
Dec. 27 with a victory in a New York Stallion Series Stakes going the same distance on the inner
track.
In preparing for Saturday's mile and 70-yard test, which will be his 3-year-old debut, Sudden
Surprise registered four half-mile workouts in January on the Belmont training track.
The expected field of six includes WinStar Farm's Inside Straight, also trained by Pletcher, who
enters off a 3 1/4-length win in an allowance/optional claiming race at the Gander distance; Blue
Sapphire Farm's stakes-placed Taoiseach; and Vincent Scuderi'sVincento, who tries stakes
company for the first time after winning two of his first three starts.
Gander S.
Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, February 06, 2016, Race 3
· STK
·
1m 70y
·
Inner track
·
$100,000
·
3 yo
·
1:20 PM (local)
PP Horse
1
Taoiseach (NY)
Jockey
Wgt Trainer
M/L
Junior Alvarado
118 James T. Ryerson -
John Bisono
Rudy R.
118 Rodriguez
-
2
Vincento (NY)
3
Kendrick
Cards of Stone (NY) Carmouche
116 Todd A. Pletcher
-
4
Cornelio H.
Inside Straight (NY) Velasquez
118 Todd A. Pletcher
-
5
Sudden Surprise
(NY)
Jose L. Ortiz
120 Todd A. Pletcher
-
6
Governor Malibu
(NY)
Manuel Franco
Christophe
116 Clement
-