Sunny Ridge Wins Sapling on Stretch Out
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Sunny Ridge, a member of Holy Bull's final crop, went four-wide into the stretch and cruised unchallenged to victory in the $100,000 Sapling Stakes for 2-year-olds Sept. 6 at Monmouth Park.
Dennis Drazin's homebred gelding won by 2 1/4 lengths as the only New Jersey-bred in the field. Favored Full Salute finished second after leading early before settling in to stalk front-runner Majestic Robert, but could not keep pace when the winner went by him in the stretch. Pinnacle Peak finished third.
With Nik Juarez aboard, Sunny Ridge covered the mile in 1:39.80 on a fast track.
Trained by Jason Servis, Sunny Ridge ($9.80) won his debut going 4 1/2 furlongs in June at Monmouth, then shipped up to Saratoga Race Course for the Sanford Stakes (gr. III), in which he raced a bit too keenly and finished seventh in the six-furlong race as the longest shot in the field.
Servis said he thought Sunny Ridge would perform better stretching out.
"The plan was to take back and get covered up, and see what happened from there," Servis said. "He was loaded turning for home and was really impressive today. We'll look for a 2-year-old stakes somewhere around the country for his next start."
Sunny Ridge is the first starter out of the Songandaprayer mare Lignum Vitae. He is one of 53 stakes winners for 1994 Horse of the Year Holly Bull, a pensioner at Darley near Lexington.