|
|
Teeth of the Dog wins a nail-biter in Dwyer
Teeth of the Dog was quickest from the gate, but Rosario allowed the bay colt to settle into second as Morgan's Guerrilla scooted up the inside to lead through fractions of :22 4/5 and :46. The duo were joined by Zetterholm on the outside, and raced in tandem rounding the turn as Teeth of the Dog got the three-quarter mark in 1:09 4/5 by a head. The sophomore put his two rivals away but suddenly found Fast Falcon challenging on his outside after that one rallied four wide from last entering the stretch. Fast Falcon gave it his best try, but Teeth of the Dog would not yield and captured his second straight stakes win. Fast Falcon was best of the rest by six lengths over Morgan's Guerrilla, who in turn had three-quarters of a length on Zetterholm to take third. "Sometimes you have to take a chance. He showed he belonged," trainer Nick Zito said of entering Fast Falcon back against Teeth of the Dog. "The one horse I was really afraid of was the winner. Our horse looks like he's going in the right direction. We're happy about him. It's too early to say, but we'll talk about the (Grade 2) Jim Dandy (on July 28 at Saratoga) and some other options." "He ran a great race against Teeth of the Dog last time and had a much
tougher trip than him," said Rosie Napravnik, who had piloting duties aboard
Fast Falcon. Guyana Star Dweej completed the order under the wire after Unstoppable U was eased at the top of the lane and Monarchic, who tried to threaten early, was pulled up on the backstretch and banned off. Teeth of the Dog took three tries to break his maiden, finally getting the job done on February 4 at Gulfstream Park, then was thrown to the wolves when started in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in his next start. The bay reputed himself well to be third in that contest, but could offer no rally when fifth in the Preakness Stakes two back. He finally earned his first stakes win in the Easy Goer, and now owns a 7-3-1-2 mark to go along with $546,450 in career earnings. "This is a class horse," Matz added. "We'll look at the Jim Dandy or the (Grade 2) West Virginia Derby (on August 4 at Mountaineer Park), something like that. He's run three races in six weeks, so we're going to give him a little bit of a break right now." Bred in Kentucky by Royal Pegasus, Teeth of the Dog brought $80,000 when passing through the Keeneland sale's ring as a September yearling. He is the first stakes winner out of the Deputy Minister mare Deputy Reality, who is herself a daughter of Grade 2-placed stakes victress Halo Reality and a half-sister to dual Grade 3-placed A. P. Reality. Teeth of the Dog's fifth dam is the Minnesota Mac mare Mesabi, who is probably best known as a half-sister to champion turf horse and top sire Cozzene. This black-type rich female line is also responsible for Grade 1 diva Serape and Grade 2 vixen Funistrada. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
 Send this article to a friend
|
|
