Archaggelos Closes to Win Grey Stakes

Before his maiden win on the turf at Laurel Park Sept. 24, Archagellos’ trainer Michael Dickinson said he would have been happy to finish third.

Exactly one week later, the half brother to dual classic winner Big Brown  showed his affinity for the Tapeta 10 track his trainer developed and captured the $125,000 Grey Stakes (G3) Oct. 1 at Woodbine.

Going into the stakes race, Dickinson said he wasn’t sure if his horse was as good as the competition, but with a strong showing on his third track in as many starts, the Temple City  colt appears to be full of surprises.

The Monticule homebred may not have raced on the Tapeta before Sunday's test, but he has been running over the surface since the winter at Dickinson's Tapeta Farm. That training time proved to be handy, as he captured the Grey Stakes with authority by 2 1/4 lengths.

With a win already at the 1 1/16-mile distance of Sunday's race, Archagellos held an advantage over his competition, as none of them had run that far. He finished second in his maiden special weight debut at Delaware Park going 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.

As expected Like What I See set the pace in the Grey under jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson while closely followed by Piven. Lookin to Strike, who raced in third on the rail early on the backstretch, moved three wide after a quarter mile in :24.44, drawing heavily favored Peppered four wide through a half-mile in :49.14 and three-quarters in 1:13.50.

That set up a dream trip for Archaggelos and his jockey Rafael Hernandez, who were tucked comfortably on the rail behind the leaders. As they turned into the stretch, Hernandez cut the corner with Archaggelos and found room between Piven and and Like What I See to surge to the lead in mid-stretch. He finished the distance in 1:44.56. Peppered, sent off at odds of 1-2, held second. Longshot Tale of Vienna came with a late run to grab the show honors.

"We saved ground all the way, and I didn't want to go too wide, so we just waited for a hole to open," Hernandez said. "That happened and he went between horses like nothing. He was brave."

Bettors largely ignored the pedigree of the winner and sent him off at odds of 9-1. Archaggelos paid $21, $5, and $4.

Out of the Nureyev mare Mien, Archaggelos is also a half brother to group 3-placed Afonso De Sousa.

Archaggelos has a lot of work to do to be put in the same breath as his more famous sibling, who won seven of eight races, including the 2008 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), Preakness Stakes (G1), Haskell Invitational (G1), and Florida Derby (G1).

Like Big Brown though, he started his career on the turf. Dickinson said a move to dirt is a "definite possibility," following the race.

"We are over the moon," he said about the victory. "You never quite know, going from a maiden to a (stakes), how they are going to handle it."

Dickinson, who retired from training in 2007 and returned in 2015, said his horse has "a lot of courage."

Dickinson watched him as a yearling and was struck by the way he ran with a group of 10 colts over about 50 acres on the Monticule Farm, and said he expected him to be a sound horse by the way he was raised.

"We've got to give a lot of credit to Dr. (Gary) Knapp (owner of Monticule Farm)," he said. "We've had him since November. He trained (at Tapeta Farm in Maryland) all winter—never missed a day. He's been fantastic to train."