Mischevious Alex Taking It Furlong By Furlong in Gotham

In a sport where development on the Triple Crown trail is usually judged one race at a time, owner Chuck Zacney prefers to take it one furlong at a time with Mischevious Alex.

With the vast majority of Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) candidates focused on two-turn preps, Zacney and trainer John Servis are content to take a less challenging progression. On the heels of a dazzling seven-length romp in 1:22.83 in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park, they will run the son of Into Mischief  in the one-turn, one-mile $300,000 Gotham Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds March 7 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

"He really jumped up in his last race of 2019, winning the Parx Juvenile by 9 3/4 lengths, and continued it in the Swale," said Zacney, who races Mischevious Alex under the Cash is King banner with co-owner Glenn Bennett of LC Racing. "The next step from seven furlongs is a mile, and the Gotham is hitting him square in that regard."

As an 85-point race in the Road to the Kentucky Derby series, the Gotham offers 50 qualifying points to the winner, and that promises to be enough to secure a spot in the Run for the Roses. Yet for Mischevious Alex, even if all goes well in the Gotham, the bigger test will come next month when he faces top-tier Kentucky Derby hopefuls in a two-turn setting that is likely to be the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) April 4 at Aqueduct.

"I call (the horses in the Gotham) the 'B' class, and we may be near the top of that. You have the other top 3-year-olds going two turns and we're still going one turn, but that's been our plan all along. We're going to take it one furlong at a time, and he will continue to tell us how far he wants to go," Zacney said. "John and I discussed a plan, and if our horse runs to expectations in the Gotham, we will probably stay in New York for the Wood. I'm not sure if the 'A' class will be there as well. It's $750,000 and grade 2, while the major preps are $1 million and grade 1, and that's what the owners and trainers of the big shooters will most likely gravitate toward."

Servis, who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (G1) with Smarty Jones, said Mischevious Alex is coming into the Gotham in fine form, and he's looking forward to seeing how the first stakes-winning son of the Speightstown  mare White Pants Night will handle the added ground.

"The Gotham is the natural progression for him," Servis said. "He's not a big horse, and he's not made like your typical route horse. Quite frankly, he doesn't have a route pedigree with Speightstown on the bottom. I keep that in the back of my mind, but the one huge asset he has is that he's so smart. (Irad Ortiz Jr.) rode him in the Swale and said he's like driving a car. You just move your hands, and all of a sudden he turns up the speed. I think that will help him get the distance."

Servis said putting blinkers on the bay colt bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm sparked a turnaround in the Parx Juvenile by the $140,000 2-year-old purchase. Prior to that, he lost three consecutive starts after a debut win at Parx Racing in June, a stretch capped by a seventh-place finish in the Laurel Futurity on turf.

"I think the blinkers made all the difference in the world," Servis said. "He's paying attention more and focusing. If you throw out the turf race, which we did to see what he might do on it, he could have been undefeated if we had used them from the beginning. He was immature but has really developed since we put them on."

Mischevious Alex drew post 6 and will be ridden by Kendrick Carmouche.

Zacney said he first saw Mischevious Alex when he and his son Alex were visiting Barry Eisaman's farm in Ocala, Fla. Eisaman bought the colt for $75,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, and he intended to pinhook him at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

"We liked what we saw in him from the beginning. We followed him up to the sale, and we were thrilled to get him for $140,000. We thought he'd go for closer to $250,000. It was a pleasant surprise," said Zacney, who campaigned $2.7 million earner and 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Afleet Alex . "I'm a big fan of Into Mischief. He had some good speed, and he could carry it. I saw this colt gallop out at the sale and got positive feedback from Barry. You put all the pieces together, and you bid on him and hope to get lucky enough to get him, which we did."

While Mischevious Alex is the lone graded stakes winner in the field of 11, another major threat figures to be Untitled, who had a rough trip when fourth in the Swale. Since then, Gary Barber and Michael Sebastian's Florida-bred son of Khozan  bounced back with a game 1 1/4-length loss to Kentucky Derby candidate Gouverneur Morris in a one-mile, 40-yard allowance-level race Feb. 14 at Tampa Bay Downs.

A winner of one of three starts, Untitled was an auspicious 11-length maiden winner Dec. 14 at Gulfstream in his debut when trained by Ralph Nicks. Mark Casse trains him now.

Untitled and jockey Junior Alvarado drew post 10.

Chris Fountoukis' Montauk Traffic will stretch out beyond seven furlongs for the first time in the Gotham after scoring by 1 1/2 lengths in the Feb. 8 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct. Trained by Linda Rice, the son of Cross Traffic  has won two of three starts, with the lone loss coming when he dwelt at the start in his debut.

Rice also trains Calumet Farm's First Deputy, a New York-bred son of Awesome Again exiting allowance and maiden wins at Aqueduct.

Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister's Virginia-bred Attachment Rate, a Hard Spun  colt, is exiting a promising 6 1/4-length score for trainer Dale Romans in a Feb. 15 maiden race at Gulfstream, covering a one-turn mile in 1:35.03 on a sloppy track.

Calumet's homebred Flap Jack will make his 2020 debut after closing his 2-year-old campaign with a four-length score in the Arlington-Washington Futurity in September on a synthetic course at Arlington International Race Course. The son of Oxbow  trained by Jack Sisterson has raced only once on dirt, finishing fifth at Ellis Park in his first start.

Necker Island, owned by Sagamore Farm and trainer Stanley Hough, was fifth in the Swale after reeling off maiden and allowance wins at Churchill Downs.

Second place in the Gotham will be worth 20 qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, with 10 for third and five for fourth.

The Gotham, which went to Easy Goer in 1989 and Secretariat in 1973, will be the 10th and final race on a card that includes the $250,000 Busher Invitational Stakes, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap (G3), and $125,000 Stymie Stakes.

Entries: Gotham S. (G3)

Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, March 07, 2020, Race 10

• Grade III
• 1m
• Dirt
• $300,000
• 3 yo
• 5:42 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Celtic Striker (KY)	Romero Ramsay Maragh	118	Raymond Handal	30/1
2	2Informative (KY)	John Bisono	118	Uriah St. Lewis	15/1
3	3War Stopper (KY)	Jorge A. Vargas, Jr.	118	Rudy R. Rodriguez	5/1
4	4Attachment Rate (VA)	Luis Saez	118	Dale L. Romans	9/2
5	5Necker Island (KY)	Manuel Franco	118	Stanley M. Hough	12/1
6	6Mischevious Alex (KY)	Kendrick Carmouche	123	John C. Servis	3/1
7	7Sixto (KY)	Eric Cancel	118	Eric J. Guillot	8/1
8	8Montauk Traffic (KY)	Jose Lezcano	120	Linda Rice	6/1
9	9Flap Jack (KY)	Declan Carroll	120	Jack Sisterson	30/1
10	10Untitled (FL)	Junior Alvarado	118	Mark E. Casse	4/1
11	11First Deputy (NY)	Dylan Davis	118	Linda Rice	30/1