O'Prado Again wins Remsen

O’Prado Again came flying down the stretch to win the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct by three-quarters of a length over Souper Speedy. El Padrino finished third.

O’Prado Again, a 2-year-old colt by El Prado out of Leh She Run, is trained by Dale Romans and was ridden to victory by Kent Desormeaux.

He covered the mile and one-eighth in 1:52.07 and returned $16.80, $7.20, and $5.10.

PRESS RELEASE

In the Remsen, O’Prado Again, a recent maiden winner at Keeneland trained by Dale Romans, was content to track Souper Speedy and Our Entourage as they dueled through an opening quarter of 24.38 and a half in 49.97. Given his cue by Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux with a quarter-mile to go, the gray son of El Prado charged through the stretch to take command inside the eighth pole and pulled away to hit the wire in 1:52.07.
 
“He’s a horse you can move into a spot and sit again, which is characteristic of a serious horse,” said Desormeaux. “He’s got gears. He’s silky smooth, like [Fusaichi Pegasus] was. You can’t tell his feet hit the ground. He’s really, really smooth.”
 
Sent off at 7-1, O’Prado Again returned $16.80 for a $2 win bet as he extended his record to 2-0-1 from five starts and earned $120,000 for Donegal Racing.
 
“I think he’s a special horse,” said Romans by telephone from Kentucky. “We went [to the Remsen] for the extra distance. The further he goes, the better he gets. We pointed to the Remsen not so much because of how he ran in his last race, but because of the way he trained into the last race and way he trained after it. The light really came on for him. He was training so well that we thought he would run a big race, so we decided to run in the Remsen.”
 
Finishing third, a head behind Souper Speedy, was favored El Padrino. Done Talking, Our Entourage, Managed Account, Stephanoatsee, Speightscity, Mucho Mas Macho and Scatter a Star completed the order of finish.

REMSEN (G2) QUOTES

Dale Romans, winning trainer of O’Prado Again (No. 8) by phone from Kentucky: “I think he’s a special horse. We went [to the Remsen] for the extra distance. The further he goes, the better he gets. We pointed to the Remsen not so much because of how he ran in his last race, but because of the way he trained into the last race and way he trained after it. The light really came on for him. He was training so well that we thought he would run a big race, so we decided to run in the Remsen. Kent [Desormeaux] rode him with a lot of confidence. He really liked him a lot too, which is why he gave up a lot of mounts in Kentucky to ride him at Aqueduct. We’ll ship him to Florida and he probably won’t race the rest of the year. There is a slim chance he could run at Hollywood [CashCall Futurity, G1, December 17], but we will probably wait until next year. We think he is a Kentucky Derby horse so we will treat him like that.”
 
Kent Desormeaux, winning jockey aboard O’Prado Again (No. 8): “He’s a horse you can move into a spot and sit again, which is characteristic of a serious horse. He’s got gears. He’s silky smooth, like [Fusaichi Pegasus] was. You can’t tell his feet hit the ground. He’s really, really smooth.”