Flexibility Aims for Another Aqueduct Victory

After opening the season with an easy victory in the Jerome Stakes (gr. III) at Aqueduct Racetrack, Flexibility will try for a second straight stakes win there when he starts in the $250,000 Withers Stakes (gr. III) Saturday, Jan. 30.

The 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds has attracted a field of seven and carries qualifying points for the Road to the Kentucky Derby on a 10-4-2-1 basis to the top four finishers.

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Flexibility will be stretching out just a bit from his 4 1/4-length victory in the one-mile and 70-yard Jerome, where he rallied from fourth to register the decisive victory. The Bluegrass Cat   colt closed out 2015 with back to back runner-up finishes to Eclipse Award finalist Mohaymen in the Nashua and Remsen stakes (both grade II). Mohaymen did not race in the Jerome and is scheduled to make his 3-year-old season debut Saturday in the Holy Bull Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park.

Trained by Chad Brown, New York-bred Flexibility currently is tied for third on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 14.

Shipping in for the Withers on Saturday will be Dennis Drazin's Sunny Ridge, who just missed a grade III score when second by a neck to Exaggerator in the Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes Nov. 21 at Delta Downs. Sunny Ridge, a New Jersey-bred Holy Bull gelding, has not raced since that effort but has been preparing for his 2015 debut with works at Belmont Park.

Sunny Ridge earned the bullet for five furlongs Jan. 12 when he breezed that distance in 1:03 2/5, fastest of 17 moves at the distance that day. Having started at four different tracks last year, he won the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park, which is run by Drazin. Trained by Jason Servis, Sunny Ridge also finished second to Greenpointcrusader in the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course.

Also in the Withers is Zayat Stables' King Kranz, who will stretch out to two turns for the first time after winning the six-furlong Lost In The Fog Stakes Jan. 1 at Aqueduct. The son of Munnings   also finished second in last year's Futurity Stakes (gr. II) at Belmont.

Vorticity, a stakes winner in Maryland who finished second in the Jerome, will try to turn the tables on Flexibility. Also back from the Jerome is Donegal Moon, who fell early in that race and lost his rider.

Rounding out the field will be maiden winners Cards of Stone and Adventist.