Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
No Carter for Skyler’s Scramjet
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Michelle Nevin doesn’t plan to run her top two male sprinters against each other anytime soon.
Between Skyler’s Scramjet and My Boy Tate, Nevin has two horses that have combined to win eight consecutive races, including three stakes.
“It’s counterproductive for both horses,” Nevin said Monday. “Both have similar styles, both are at the same level, I think. Timing-wise, I don’t think I have to run them against each other.”
Skyler’s Scramjet made a successful graded stakes debut Saturday, winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool Handicap by 1 1/2 lengths, his third consecutive victory and fourth in his last five starts.
Skyler’s Scramjet hounded the speedy Green Gratto through a half-mile in 46.55 seconds and opened up a four-length lead in midstretch before settling for the 1 1/2-length score over a late-running Do Share. Skyler’s Scramjet ran six furlongs in 1:11.38 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 103.
Though the Tom Fool is considered the local prep for the Grade 1 Carter on April 7, Skyler’s Scramjet will not run back in that seven-furlong race.
“I’m not a big fan of running them back too quick off a big effort, and I felt like that was a big effort,” Nevin said Monday.
Since Skyler’s Scramjet is 4 for 4 at six furlongs, Nevin would like to keep the 4-year-old Creative Cause gelding at that distance. However, the next New York race at that distance isn’t until May 12, and that’s the ungraded $150,000 Runhappy Stakes at Belmont. The next graded sixfurlong race in New York for older male sprinters isn’t until the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 28 at Saratoga.
Nevin does plan to run My Boy Tate in the Carter. My Boy Tate, a New York-bred son of Boys At Tosconova, has won five straight and will be stepping into open company for the first time in the Carter.
One of the expected opponents in the Carter figures to be Do Share, who rallied from last to get second in the Tom Fool, his first start since winning the Gravesend on Dec. 23.
Two magnificent claims
While horsemen descended on Ocala, Fla., on Sunday in search of future stakes winners, trainers Danny Gargan and David Jacobson found their most recent ones at the claim box.
Divine Miss Grey, winner of Saturday’s $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational for Gargan, and Harlan Punch, who dominated the $150,000 Stymie Stakes by seven lengths for Jacobson, were both acquired via claims. Since being claimed, both horses have won six of 10 starts. Harlan Punch has earned $342,900, while Divine Miss Grey has banked $338,100.
“He was the best claim at Saratoga last year,” Gargan, Divine Miss Grey’s trainer, said of Harlan Punch. “David’s done a great job with him, and we’ve been lucky enough to have a great claim. It’s good to see horses coming out of claiming races win stakes in back-toback races at Aqueduct. That helps the game a lot.”
Divine Miss Grey was claimed for $16,000 in March 2017 at Gulfstream Park by Luis Stritsman and trainer Luis Ramirez. Stritsman, who raced as Corms Racing, sent the horse to Gargan in New York.
Divine Miss Grey has won three straight, including the Interborough Stakes in January and the Heavenly Prize. Divine Miss Grey’s weapon is her speed, which she used to record a 6 3/4-length victory in the Heavenly Prize. She ran a mile in 1:38.13 and earned a Beyer of 96.
Gargan said he will consider either the Grade 1, $300,000 Madison at Keeneland on April 7 or the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct on April 6 for Divine Miss Grey’s next start. Both races are at seven furlongs.
Jacobson claimed Harlan Punch for $40,000 last August at Saratoga. On Saturday, he won for the second time in six days, getting a sweet stalking trip under Dylan Davis and drawing away to win the Stymie by seven. He ran a mile in 1:38.03 and earned a Beyer of 105.
Harlan Punch’s weapons are his versatility and durability. On Feb. 15, he won an allowance going 1 1/4 miles. His last two victories have come in races run at a one-turn mile.
Jacobson said Harlan Punch doesn’t like to train and is better off racing frequently. Jacobson said he may wheel Harlan Punch back in Saturday’s $100,000 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial going 1 1/8 miles at Laurel Park. Harlan Punch also is eligible for the $90,000 Mr. Sinatra here March 31, part of the New York Claiming Championships.
“We may just stay in New York,” Jacobson told NYRA publicity Sunday. “He obviously loves it here and has been running well, so we’ll keep all options on the table.”
Former jockey Nemeti dies at 69
Bill Nemeti, a former jockey who worked in the racing office at New York Racing Association tracks for two decades, died March 7. He was 69.
As a jockey, Nemeti won 656 races from 1976-83, including 29 stakes, according to Equibase. His biggest victory came aboard Princelet in the Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup in 1981. His other graded stakes victories came in the 1980 Long Branch on No Bend, the 1982 Salvator Mile on Count His Fleet, and the 1982 Lamplighter on Majesty’s Prince.
Nemeti was paralyzed from the waist down after being involved in a car accident near the Meadowlands Racetrack in December 1983, according to an article in The New York Times.
In 1990, Nemeti joined the NYRA as an entry clerk in the racing office. He worked at NYRA until he retired in 2010. Nemeti spent the last several years living with his daughter Nicole Stewart in Anahola, Hawaii, where he died.
In addition to Stewart, Nemeti is survived by another daughter, Trinity Galarza, and six grandchildren as well as his brother Vincent Nemeti.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made in Nemeti’s name to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.