Miles D back on home field

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After a dud of a return to the races in last month’s Grade 3 Fred Hooper Stakes at Gulfstream Park, Miles D returns to the site of his best race – and biggest win – when he looks to jump-start his career in Saturday’s $125,000 Stymie at Aqueduct.

Miles D won the Discovery Stakes over Aqueduct’s main track in November 2021 and has only raced twice since. In February 2022, he finished third behind Olympiad in the Grade 3 Mineshaft Stakes at Fair Grounds before going to the sidelines. In the Hooper, his first start in 11 months, Miles D, breaking from the rail in a field of 12, got away next-to-last and never got involved finishing seventh, 11 lengths behind Endorsed.

“He got behind horses, he didn’t care for the kickback, tossed it in, and quit,” said Chad Brown, who trains Miles D for Peter Brant and Robert LaPenta. “Hopefully, with a race under his belt, he’ll move forward. He seems to be training fine, he needs a little bit of a clean trip.”

Miles D should get that, as he breaks from the outside post under Manny Franco in this six-horse field.

Miles D and others in here will have to hope for a regression from Repo Rocks, who comes into the Stymie off a powerful 8 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Toboggan here Jan. 28. In winning his third straight race – all since being transferred to trainer Jamie Ness – Repo Rocks earned a 111 Beyer Speed Figure for the Toboggan. The figure remains the highest earned so far in 2023.

Repo Rocks has won seven races, all at distances shorter than the one mile he’ll attempt for just the second time in the Stymie. Ness has expressed confidence in the 5-year-old gelding’s ability to get the distance.

“I could be wrong, but the way I feel about him he’s going to be better going long,” Ness said.

Despite the very fast race last time, Ness has not backed off the training of Repo Rocks, who has two sharp workouts coming into this.

“He seems to really take aggressive training,” Ness said. “He’s kind of thrived on it, so that’s how I train him. Everything I give him, he wants it and he wants more.”

At 124 pounds, Repo Rocks will be conceding six pounds to all five of his rivals.

Far Mo Power and Tough Tickets, like Repo Rocks, also are in from Parx Racing. Far Mo Power, who was disqualified from first for interfering with Mind Control in last September’s Parx Dirt Mile, is coming off a solid allowance win on Jan. 30 at Parx. Tough Tickets was third in the Kris Kringle Stakes run over a slopy track Jan. 4.

Black Belt finished sixth in the Fred Hooper after a troubled break. Prior to that, he had won three straight one-turn mile races for Peter Walder at Gulfstream. He was off Lasix in the Hooper and will not be on that medication Saturday.

Bourbonic took advantage of a contested pace to win a second-level allowance going a mile here Feb. 5. That was his first win since he upset the 2021 Wood Memorial at odds of 72-1.