Owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Chad Brown continued their hot hand
in the turf division when Hyper landed Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000
Bowling Green Handicap, the opening-day feature at Belmont Park.
A stablemate of Arlington Million winner Real Solution and Sword Dancer
Invitational hero Big Blue Kitten, Hyper forged to the front down the stretch
and parried the late thrust of Finnegans Wake to notch his first graded victory.
Boisterous, the 3-5 favorite, ended up third after a checkered passage.
Hyper, the 5-2 second choice, was coming off his first overall stakes win in
the July 31 John’s Call at Saratoga. With Javier Castellano back aboard, the
six-year-old was anchored near the back of the short field as Quick Casablanca
carved out fractions of :24 1/5 and :48 4/5 on the firm inner turf.
London Lane and Farhaan secured stalking spots, while Boisterous was
restrained in fourth along the hedge. One spot behind him in fifth was Hyper,
who took closer order after six furlongs in 1:12 4/5, and was poised to strike
when Quick Casablanca clocked the mile in 1:37.
Straightening for home, Hyper rolled past the longtime leader. But Finnegans
Wake, last early, had been making similar headway, and the deep closer threw
down a challenge in the stretch. Boisterous, on the other hand, had been mired
on the inside, forced to check, and got out belatedly.
Hyper fended off Finnegans Wake by a half-length to complete 1 1/4 grassy
miles in 2:01 1/5. Another two lengths astern came the unfortunate Boisterous,
who got up by three-quarters of a length over Quick Casablanca. Next came London
Lane and the long-way last Farhaan.
“My horse didn’t break too sharp today, for whatever reason,” Castellano said
of Hyper. “My goal in my mind was to keep him relaxed the first part of the race
and then find the kick.
“When Boisterous and my horse made their moves at the same time, at the
quarter-pole, Johnny (Velazquez aboard the favorite) didn’t have a choice, he
had to go inside. I had a choice, to go around horses. My horse took off and did
it the right way. He hung a little bit but when he saw the other horse come on
the outside, he came on again.”
Boisterous’ connections rued their luck.
“It was way open (at the top of the stretch), for two horses at least,”
Velazquez said.
“He got stopped at a bad time in the race, then he had to check him again,”
trainer Shug McGaughey said. “When he got him to the outside, he came on and
finished. It’s just one of those things.”
Hyper paid $7.90 to win and increased his earnings to $554,700 from his
21-10-5-2 record, compiled exclusively on turf. The homebred was a late
developer who spent quite a bit of time in the starter allowance ranks. But
after winning three straight at that level over the winter of 2011-2012, he
stepped up to allowance/optional claimers and extended his streak to five. Hyper
shipped to Royal Ascot last summer for the Wolferton, winding up ninth, and
fared worse when a tailed-off last of seven in the Steventon Stakes at Newbury.
Freshened for nearly six months after his English misadventure, Hyper
returned with a rallying third to Za Approval in an allowance/optional claimer
at Gulfstream on January 5. He scored in a similar event over the same course
and 1 1/16-mile distance on March 9, and has competed in stakes company ever
since.
Hyper was a closing third to Street Game and Lubash in his U.S. stakes debut
in the April 14 Dave at Aqueduct. A troubled second to Teaks North in the Good
Reward over the Bowling Green course and distance on May 15, he was a
wide-rallying runner-up to London Lane in the June 22 Colonial Turf Cup. Hyper
then scored his stakes breakthrough in the 1 5/8-mile John’s Call, and
successfully cut back in trip to make it two in a row here.
“He’s always trained well,” assistant trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “Chad has
had him for so long, and he’s always been a nice horse to train. He always tries
really hard, he always looks great.
“With age, he has been getting better. What’s so enjoyable about watching him
run is that he seems to get better every time. He always finds a way to find a
little more, and as he’s gotten older he keeps finding ways to step up.”
Unlike the Ramseys’ recent homebred stars, Hyper is not by Kitten’s Joy. He
is a son of Victory Gallop and the unraced Nureyev mare Raw Nerve. While his
immediate family includes Australian Group 2 victor Rasheek and English Group 3
winner Burooj, his most famous relatives are a little further back.
Hyper’s fourth dam is Queen Sucree, who produced 1974 Kentucky Derby hero
Cannonade and appears as the granddam of Grade 1 stars Stephan’s Odyssey and
Lotka. Queen Sucree is herself a half-sister to Hall of Famer Tosmah and
renowned sire Halo, from the family of breed-shaping patriarch Northern Dancer.
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