Swag Daddy, Dr Disco get first stakes wins

by John Cox

Aqueduct's Sunday card featured a pair of stakes in the $65,000

Damon Runyon

and $60,000

Vodka, and the winners stepped up to add first black-type victories to their

resumes.

Eric Fein's Swag Daddy entered the Damon Runyon off a well-beaten seventh in

his stakes debut, the Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes,

but surged late on Sunday to take the mile-and-70-yard contest.

Swag Daddy was sent off the 8-5 favorite in this one despite is last effort

and lived up to his odds when swinging four wide into the stretch to run down Pretension,

just getting his head in front on the wire. Trained by Richard Dutrow, the

juvenile son of Scat Daddy stopped the clock in 1:43 4/5 on the fast inner dirt

to move his record to 5-2-0-0, $66,490.

"Big weekend," Fein stated. "It was a tough spot for him with the field

bunching up. Once he got to the outside, he came on pretty strong. We always

knew he was a nice horse. This is our first step. We know how good he is."

Swag

Daddy, who capped jockey Junior Alvarado's four-win day in the Damon Runyon, has

now banked $66,490 to go along with a 5-2-0-0 lifetime mark.

"He broke a little bit slow and I just tried to save ground

the first part," Alvarado said. "It was a long race, and I wanted to save ground, but at the same

time, I had to go outside because they told me that the horse doesn't like to be

inside too much. By the half-mile pole, everybody was all packed right there and

I had to wait a little bit longer to go back and then make a move. He could have

won the race more easily if I'd had a better trip and a better position, but he

still ran an unbelievable race."

Earlier on the day, Joseph Dirico's Dr Disco took the six-furlong Vodka Stakes in

wire-to-wire fashion, winning by a length in a final time of 1:10 2/5. The victory was the first

stakes win for the Disco Rico three-year-old, who has placed in the Posse Hudson Stakes

and Packett's Landing Stakes this year. Jockey Mike Luzzi was aboard to guide

the Bruce Brown pupil, who now boasts an 11-5-3-2, $196,650, mark.

"He really likes this track because of the tight turns and he

can kind of skim the rail and get around there," Brown said. "That's his game. We've tried to

rate him before, but he's the best on the lead and that's usually the name of

the game on the inner track. It kind of fits him to a 'T.' We should have a good

winter with him.

"He's only three -- I've had him since he was a two-year-old, so I keep

thinking he's older, but he still has room to improve from his three-to four-year-old

year. We're not really sure (where we might point him next). We'll see what

comes up. If he's not already an open company type of horse, he's not far from

it."

"He seems to

like this track a lot and takes the turn real nice," Luzzi agreed. "As we

figured, take the lead and see what happens. Guys were riding to keep up

and I was just giving him a breather. I felt like a winner. He was just

galloping. He switched leads and there was plenty left in the tank. He's only

three

and he's still growing and he's still learning. There is more there."