New York-bred Talk to Me Jimmy upsets Listed $200K Withers
Talk to Me Jimmy, with Ruben Silvera at the helm, made every pole a winning one, romping to an 11-length victory in Friday’s Listed $200,000 Withers, a nine-furlong route for sophomores, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained and co-owned by Rudy Rodriguez with SEI Thoroughbreds, the New York-bred Modernist colt, off at odds of 12-1, picked up the maximum allotment of 20-10-6-4-2 qualifying points on offer to the top-five finishers towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on May 2, at Churchill Downs.
The connections, who enjoyed a maiden optional-claiming score on Thursday here with Exhibition Only, are now Derby dreaming with Talk to Me Jimmy - a modest $31,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, who provided his sire with his first stakes winner.
“We’re new to this, so we’ll let it come to us and do our best,” said Dustin Pusatere of SEI Thoroughbreds. “There’s a lot of heavy-hitters, and we’re one of many trying [to get to the Derby]. It’s not bad beating Gun Runner’s half-brother [Ottinho].”
The Withers, which was re-scheduled from January 31 when the program was canceled due to arctic temperatures, saw Talk to Me Jimmy set a hot pace after exiting post 6-of-7 to duel with 3-2 mutuel favorite Schoolyardsuperman to his inside for the lead through an opening quarter-mile in 23.96 seconds.
“I told Ruben, 'we got the inside horse [Schoolyardsuperman] that has a lot of speed, but we’ve got speed, too,'” Rodriguez said. “I told Ruben to take it from there, but don’t let him slow it down. Let’s see what we’ve got. Today was a test to find out what we’ve got, and I think he passed the test.”
Talk to Me Jimmy continued to improve his advantage down the backstretch, leading by one length through a half-mile in 48.18 and by three lengths after three-quarters in 1:12.47 with the Manny Franco-piloted Schoolyardsuperman continuing to chase in front of dual stakes-winner Mailata, who entered on a three-race win streak.
“I was confident when Manny came to him and he [kicked clear], I said, ‘wow.’ He really surprised me,” Rodriguez said.
Silvera and Talk to Me Jimmy widened to a 6 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call and continued to find more to notch the emphatic score in a final time of 1:51.68 on the fast track.
Silvera said he had no choice but to give Talk to Me Jimmy his cue.
“I tried holding, I tried waiting until the stretch, but I feel like I have a lot of horse at the three-eighths, so I wait a little, but in the stretch [we go],” Silvera said.
Rodriguez noted that Talk to Me Jimmy grabbed a right-front quarter during the race, possibly at the start when he brushed with Mailata, who was bumped out of the gate by Star Sweeper.
“He did grab himself a little. I don’t know how bad it is yet, but we’ll take a look and clean him up good and take it from there,” Rodriguez said.
The Ricardo Santana, Jr.-piloted maiden Grittiness, who was in tight into the first turn, rallied from last-of-7 to earn place honors and 10 qualifying points by a half-length over Ottinho [6 points], a half-brother to Hall of Famer Gun Runner.
Schoolyardsuperman [4 points], Star Sweeper [2 points], Fourth and One, who broke outward, and Mailata rounded out the order of finish.
Talk to Me Jimmy made his first two starts traveling a one-turn mile against fellow state-breds here, adding blinkers to graduate at second asking with a frontrunning 5 1/2-length score over next-out winner Sunday Boy, who captured the $500,000 NYSSS Great White Way next out.
“We always thought he wants to go long. He’s a nice, solid little horse,” Rodriguez said. “We picked up this horse at Keeneland, him and Exhibition Only and a couple other ones, and we’ve been very lucky. He had a little setback in the beginning, but they [the owners] have been very, very patient.”
The Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher-trained Grittiness, who now has 11 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, entered from a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Remsen on December 6 here that garnered one point.
Stu Hampson, Pletcher’s New York-based assistant, said he was proud of the effort by Grittiness.
“He definitely found some trouble leaving there, probably not through his own fault,” Hampson said. “A little unfortunate, because Ricardo was going to sit a really good trip. Whether he would've been able to sit close enough to the eventual winner, who knows, I think he was very impressive, but with that said, our horse was very gallant in defeat. After stepping out of there early after getting slammed, he came with a late run, he's a horse that should be progressing and continue to improve."
Jose Lezcano said the Chad Brown-trained Ottinho will continue to improve with experience.
“He ran good, but I think this kind of horse keeps developing, getting better and better and better. This is a horse who every race will be better,” Lezcano said.
Rodriguez will now contemplate upcoming prep races at the Big A on the Road to the Kentucky Derby series which include the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham [50-25-15-10-5], a one-turn mile on February 28; and the nine-furlong Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino [100-50-25-15-10] on April 4.
“This was a big test for him and we’ll just skip the other one [the Gotham] and point for the Wood,” Rodriguez said.
Bred in the Empire State by Majestic View Farms, Intl., Talk to Me Jimmy, out of the 10-time winning Trippi mare Prairie Trip, banked $110,000 in victory while improving his record to 3-2-0-1. He returned $26.54 for a $2 win bet.
Live racing is canceled on Saturday and Sunday at Aqueduct Racetrack due to arctic temperatures and extremely low wind chill values forecast to impact the New York metropolitan area throughout the weekend. Aqueduct Racetrack will remain open for simulcast operations on Saturday and Sunday.
Live racing is canceled on Saturday and Sunday at Aqueduct Racetrack due to arctic temperatures and extremely low wind chill values forecast to impact the New York metropolitan area throughout the weekend. Aqueduct Racetrack will remain open for simulcast operations on Saturday and Sunday.
Live racing resumes Wednesday at the Big A with a nine-race card. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
America's Day at the Races presents live coverage and analysis of every day of the Aqueduct Racetrack winter meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.
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