Disco time, NYRA photo
Christian Abdo
Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Disco time was very impressive when he improved his record to 5-for-5 in Saturday’s Listed $200,000 Dwyer, a one-turn mile for sophomores, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained by two-time Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, Not This Time entered dark bay on a 5 1/2-length pace in the 1 1/16-mile St. Louis Derby on September 19 at Fairmount Park, which came after a layoff following a victory in the Grade 3 third-place Lecomte in January at Fair Grounds.
On Saturday, Disco Time pressed the pace under Florent Geroux, who was on board for all five starts, en route to a dominant 9 3/4 victory over Raw. Disco Time confirmed his latest achievement with the striking victory, which delivered a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure.
“A great horse. The sky is the limit for him,” said Geroux. “He rode a very high speed the last time after his discharge, so the connections gave him plenty of time to recover from that effort. Today he was back with a bang – a very exciting horse for the future.”
Disco Time left post 2 and was bumped into Tip top Thomasbut still trailed that rival, who moved into the lead from the inside post, posting a quarter mile of 22.27 seconds on the fast main track.
Disco Time stayed out of Hall of Famer John Velazquez pilot Tip Top Thomas at the back with Crudo in third under Kendrick Carmouche and Stars and stripes the trailer through the half mile in 44.56. In the corner, with little movement from Geroux, Disco Time moved away from the early pacesetter and recorded three quarters in 1:08.78.
“I thought the horse to beat was definitely Tip Top Thomas – I wanted to make sure I kept a close eye on him,” Geroux said. “At the back I was cruising and Johnny on the bend was already asking his horse for a little more and I was just cruising. He felt great – it looked super impressive on TV and felt great on his back.”
Once straightened for home, Disco Time began and the race was decided, with it soon becoming a matter of what his margin of victory would be. Crudo continued from third place, but Disco Time was by far the best in a final time of 1:33.86.
Tip Top Thomas finished a further five lengths back in third with Stars and Stripes completing the order of finish. Dream On and Light Forever were scratched.
“Very impressive,” said Dustin Dugas, Cox’s assistant at Belmont Park. “Florent knows the horse very well and he timed everything very well. He didn’t let Tip Top Thomas escape. They were rolling. When he asked him to go, he went and there was nothing left to guess.”
“They were going fast, but the way he was sitting outside of him, Florent said he felt comfortable the whole way. He had a lot of confidence in his horse and the horse looked very confident,” Dugas added.
Carmouche said the Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher-trained Crudo was game in his return to a pair of fourths on the turf. Pletcher also sent Tip Top Thomas.
“The horse was running well,” Carmouche said. “We were just second best today. With a little more distance you get so much better out of him. I thought he ran well overall.”
Disco Time is out of the second-ranked Pennsylvania-bred Jump Start mare Disco Chick, who had $735,250 in her bank account via a 42-10-14-6 ledger. He made $110,000 in wins, while returning $4.44 on a $2 win bet as an after-time favorite.
Live racing resumes Sunday at Aqueduct Racetrack with a nine-race card, with the $150,000 Awad in Race 3. The first post is 12:10 PM Eastern.
America’s Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Aqueduct Racetrack fall meet on the FOX Sports networks. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, go to https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule/.
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