Moonage Daydream made it three consecutive New York-bred turf stakes wins by rallying from third position this time to outfinish Collaboration and win the $150,000 Ticondoerga Stakes by a half-length.
Moonage Daydream is one of 30 winners and 7 black type winners from the Hidden Brook Florida Training Center.
Collaboration, who muscled past a stubborn pacesetting Silver Skillet inside the sixteenth pole, got second by a half-length over Silver Skillet, who was a neck better than Stonewall Star. Whatlovelookslike, the 2-1 favorite, finished fifth, followed by Caldwell Luvs Gold, New Ginya and Masterof the Tunes.
Moonage Daydream was ridden by Flavien Prat, who picked up his 70th stakes win of the year. Irad Ortiz Jr. owns the record for most stakes wins in a single year by a jockey, 79, set in 2022.
In August, Moonage Daydream won the Yaddo at Saratoga when she stalked the pace from second. Last month, Moonage Daydream won the John Hettinger in gate-to-wire fashion.
On Sunday, Prat kept Moonage Daydream in third position, about 3 1/2 lengths off the early pace as Silver Skillet set splits of 23.60 seconds for the quarter, 48.36 for the half and 1:11.38 for six furlongs.
Collaboration, who raced in second under Jose Ortiz, went after Silver Skillet, but had to really work hard to nudge by that rival. By that time, Prat had gotten Moonage Daydream out and into the clear and she outfinished Collaboration.
“I was on the lead last time, but the pace was very slow,” Prat said in a post-race interview with NYRA publicity. “I felt like today there could be a few horses that could go. I felt like she wanted a target. It worked out good today.”
Moonage Daydream, owned by Chris Larsen, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.87 and returned $7.30 as the second choice. Moonage Daydream gave trainer Jorge Abreu his second stakes win on the card as he also captured the $250,000 Empire Distaff with Venti Valentine.
-edited from www.drf.com
