Stay Thirsty and Trickmeister to lock horns in the Vanlandingham Stakes
The 4-year-old colt, Stay Thirsty returns to the races in the $90,000 Vanlandingham Stakes at Belmont Park on 17 May, 2012. The race will be run over a distance of 1 1/16 miles over the venue’s dirt course, and it has reeled in 5, 3-year-old and above colts
and geldings.
The only threat Stay Thirsty will have in the Vanlandingham Stakes is the 5-year-old IEAH Stables, Trickmeister, who is exiting a disappointing sixth place finish in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap to winner, Hymn Book, who had never lost a race in his five career
starts.
Talking about disappointments, Todd Pletcher trained Stay Thirsty’s 2011 season ended in a disappointing manner when he finished 11th in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic to winner, Drosselmeyer, last fall at Churchill Downs.
It was a solid season where the Mike Repole owned colt won the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes, finished as a runner up in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes to winner, Ruler on Ice.
Later in the 2011 season, Stay Thirsty won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, and won the biggest race of his career at the same venue, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at about 1 ¼ miles, and prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic finished third in the Grade
1 Jockey Club Gold Cup to winner, Flat Out.
“I think he is where you would want him for his first start back,” said Pletcher, who trains Stay Thirsty for owner Mike Repole. “We have him fit enough without going over the top, hopefully. We’ve got bigger goals in mind down the road, so this is as good
a place as any to get him started.”
Stay Thirsty will break from post number 2 in the Vanlandingham Stakes under jockey Javier Castellano.
When Stay Thirsty was winning the Travers Stakes last year, Trickmeister downed the Pleasant Colony Stakes by a massive margin of 11 3/4 lengths at Saratoga earning a 104 Beyer for trainer Richard Dutrow, but disappointed in the Donn Handicap.
“I still cannot tell you why he didn’t show up in that race the right way,” trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said. “I’m hoping it was the track – it had been raining and it was kind of heavy. That’s not what [Ramon] Dominguez said, but that was the first time
he had been on the horse.”
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