By Dick Downey

Alpha easily won the Grade III Withers Stakes today at Aqueduct and might move on to the Gotham Stakes via the New York route to the Kentucky Derby --  or not.

The Withers was not on the New York calendar last year but was brought back in replacement of the ungraded Whirlaway. From its $200,000 purse, Alpha picked up $120,000 in graded earnings.

As expected, How Do I Win set the pace on the inner dirt course and led the field through fractions of :23.71, :48.04 and 1:12.71. Alpha, the 1-4 favorite, broke well from the gate and went three wide into the first turn where he and Hakama, who was stalking How Do I Win, bumped. Meanwhile, 44-1 and by far the longest shot in the field, Speightscity was not far from the lead.

After Alpha relaxed down the backstretch, the shape of the race began to change on the far turn. Alpha began moving up on the outside of horses when Ramon Dominguez roused him.

Alpha took over in upper stretch and led by four lengths with a furlong left. Speightscity and Tiger Walk passed tired horses Hakama and How Do I Win in the stretch. Meanwhile, Alpha was geared down as the approached the wire.

Alpha prevailed by 3 1/4 lengths over Speightscity, who was in turn 1 3/4 length ahead of Tiger Walk at the finish. They were followed by How Do I Win, King Kid and Hakama. Swag Daddy scratched today with a foot problem.

The winning time for 1 1/16 mile was 1:44.23. Alpha paid $2.70, $2.50 and $2.10. With the longest shot in the field running second, the $2 exacta returned $32.40.

Alpha has now won two in a row after taking the Count Fleet Stakes in similar running style at Aqueduct four weeks ago.

Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Alpha raced in the colors of Godolphin Stable. He was bred in Kentucky by Darley and is by Bernardini, out of Munnaya by Nijinksy.  

Equibase chart

CONNECTIONS QUOTES

Kiaran McLaughlin, winning trainer: “He was a little wide into the first turn, looked like a couple came out into him and forced him even wider, but then on the backside he settled back in. He had to move a little bit early but he responded when asked, so it was an impressive race. It was impressive the way he finished. Ramon knows him well, he’s got great hands and he’s a great jockey, so we’re just happy with things. Anytime you’re 1-5 you get a little bit nervous. It’s nice to be 1-5 because they have you to beat, but it’s also a little nerve-wracking. We were hoping he’d win like that.

“He was great in the gate. We’ve been schooling him a lot. It worked out today. Obviously it’s nice to be outside, but at some point he’s going to have to be inside, so we’ll see how our schooling is working.

“I think he improved some [from the Count Fleet] because of how wide he was both trips, and he was better in the gate. He gets a better grade for this race – if it was a ‘B’ last time, he gets an ‘A’ this time.

“The plans will be to talk to Simon Crisford from Godolphin to see which way to go. He’s here in New York right now, but he could relocate, or he could run back in the Gotham in a month. We’ll just have to talk about it. At least we got $120,000 in graded earnings [today] going forward to the first Saturday in May. That’s important.

“There are some good 3-year-olds around the country and it’s hard to tell what he actually beat today. Union Rags is out there, Todd Pletcher has what looks like a shedrow full of them, Out of Bounds in California for Darley  … whatever direction he goes, there’s some nice 3-year-olds out there. We hope we fit in there well with them all.”

Ramon Dominguez: “He was excellent [in the gate]. He walked in there and my idea was to bring him along and try not to mess with him. The [starter] had to push him back to get him into position and he was perfect. I know they have done a lot of schooling and [the gate] wasn’t an issue today.

“I was a little concerned, of course. You always want to save ground, and after I went wide through the first turn my main goal was to try and get him to relax. I felt like to do that, I had to get him behind the horse that was directly in front of me. He switched off and relaxed to the point that I really had no idea whether I had any horse or not. I was going through the motions.

"Past the half-mile, when I tried to put a little pressure to start making my run, he jumped on the bridle and was pretty handy from there. I was a little more familiar with the horse [today] and I kind of knew what to expect, but I thought he moved forward from his last race. Although that race was good to begin with, I was very happy with his race today. I thought he improved. He finished up nice, and the last eighth he was really doing it on his own and galloped out good. Just the way you want to see.”