House Rules ekes out Top Flight score

House Rules got up just in time to be three-for-four thus far this season (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) House Rules (Distorted Humor) just got up in time to be a half-length in front on the wire of Saturday’s $200,000 Top Flight H. (G3) at Aqueduct with jockey Junior Alvarado aboard. The James Jerkens trainee was sent off the 2-5 favorite and returned $2.80 for finishing 1 1/8 miles over the fast main track in 1:52 2/5. Shayjolie (Indian Charlie) headed straight to the front when the gates opened but found company in the form of Amulay (It’s Not Joke) to her inside upon entering the backstretch. Before You Know It (Hard Spun) tracked in third just behind and outside of the dueling front runners through splits of :24 3/5, :48 3/5 and 1:13 4/5 while House Rules saved ground on the inside just behind the top two. Amulay began fading heading into the final turn, leaving the way clear for Before You Know It to take up the fight against a tenacious Shayjolie. Those two continued battling in the lane as House Rules slowly inched her way forward. The dark bay filly just got up in the shadow of the wire to score over Before You Know It, who in turn had her head ahead of Shayjolie on the line.

“I had a good trip the whole way saving ground,” Alvarado said. “That’s what
Jimmy (Jerkens) told me to do, so we could take advantage of our position by
stalking and just seeing what horses I could follow. As soon as I tipped her out
at the five-sixteenths pole, I thought I had them already, but the horses in
front all of a sudden started to get away from me before I started asking my
filly. But I have to say, I had the best horse, and that’s probably why she was
able to get up and get the win at the end.”

House Rules earned her third stakes win of the year, and of her overall
career, in the Top Flight after opening 2015 with easy wins in the Bal Harbour
H. and Rampart S. (G3). She was runner-up in the Royal Delta S. (G2) last out,
and also shows a pair of seconds in the Davona Dale S. (G2) and Gulfstream Park
Oaks (G2) from last year on her resume. The four-year-old’s record now stands at
6-4-0 from 16 lifetime starts with $533,703 in accumulated earnings.

Bred in Kentucky by El Catorce Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC, House Rules sold
for $90,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. She is the first registered
stakes winner out of multiple Argentinean Group 2 victress Teamgesit (Mutakddim)
and comes from an Argentinean black-type rich female family that includes Group
1 scorers El Baron (Egg Toss), El Azor (Lasting Approval) and Bab Dancer (Oak
Dancer).

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