Hades, Domestic Product Renew Rivalry in Dwyer

Graded stakes winners Domestic Product  and Hades  renew their rivalry in a short field of four 3-year-olds in the $200,000 Dwyer Stakes (G3) July 6 at the Belmont at the Big A meet.

Domestic Product and Hades met for the first time in January, where Hades pulled off a front-running score over heavily favored Fierceness  to win the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park. Klavarich Stables' homebred Domestic Product also got the better of Fierceness, closing encouragingly behind a slow pace for runner-up honors.

After the Holy Bull, their paths to the Kentucky Derby (G1) took different turns. Hades was dealt two straight sound defeats in the Florida Derby (G1) and Lexington Stakes (G3), taking him out of the Derby picture, while Domestic Product was victorious in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) before finishing 13th in the first leg of the Triple Crown.

The pair faced each other again in the June 15 Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park, with Domestic Product checking in a distant second to Tuscan Sky  and Hades settling for third.

Flavien Prat will ride the Chad Brown-trained Domestic Product, while regular passenger Paco Lopez will guide Hades for owners D. J. Stable and Robert Cotran. Hades races with blinkers off.

The field is completed by Kaleem Shah's $725,000 purchase Billal , third in allowance optional claimer company at Saratoga Race Course last time out, and the lightly raced Mike Maker trainee Save the Trees , who is 2-for-2. The Preservationist gelding is cross-entered in Saturday's Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.

The Dwyer is carded as the day's second race due to the small lineup.