By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The phone of Feargal Lynch rang not that long ago. Chad Brown, one of the thoroughbred racing’s top trainers, was lining up jockeys for upcoming stakes races.
Brown wanted to know if Lynch would leave his home base of Maryland to ride Twisted Tom in Saturday’s $160,150 New York Derby at Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack.
He didn’t need to ask twice.
“When he calls, you come,” Lynch said with a smile.
The trip to upstate New York was well worth it, too.
Lynch guided Twisted Tom to a half-length victory over Broken Engagement, prevailing in a thrilling duel that began as the field turned for home and didn’t end until they passed under the wire.
Making his first start since a well-beaten sixth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes on June 10, Twisted Tom dug in gamely to win the 1 1/16th miles stakes race for state-bred 3-year-olds. The chestnut son of Creative Cause and grandson of 1995 Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch is now 5-for-8 lifetime, and 3-for-3 when Lynch is in the saddle.
This was no easy victory, however. First, Twisted Tom needed to put away Gold for the King coming out of the final turn. Then Broken Engagement engaged him in a quarter-mile tussle, even drifting in to deliver a fairly solid hip check halfway down the stretch.
Twisted Tom remained unfazed, fighting off the challenge to win the $96,090 first-place check in the 45th running of the New York Derby. He covered the mile and 1/16th in 1-minute, 44.52 seconds and, as the betting favorite, returned $3.50 on a $2 wager.
“When you think he’s beat, he just keeps coming and coming,” Lynch said of his horse.
Coming off a troubled trip in the Belmont Stakes, when he ended up with four cut legs following an incident on the first turn, Twisted Tom found state-bred competition much more to his liking. He had missed about two weeks of training as he recovered from the minor injuries in the Belmont, Brown said, and a course was plotted to ready him for the New York Derby.
In Saturday’s secondary feature race, Bonita Bianca ran down long shot Playinwiththeboys in the shadow of the wire to win the $75,000 New York Oaks for state-bred 3-year-old fillies.
While Bonita Bianca was biding her time at the back of the six-horse field heading toward the final turn, Playinwiththeboys assumed the lead and opened up by about three lengths as she hit the top of the stretch.
Bonita Bianca, however, took aim coming off the turn and methodically ran her down, prevailing by a long neck as the second choice in the field (returning $4.40 to win).
“She made me work for it,” jockey Dylan Davis said, “but when she wanted to start running she showed how good she is.”
Bonita Bianca is trained by Rudy Rodriguez. Her victory in the 1 1/16th-miles event denied long-time Finger Lakes trainer Michael S. Ferraro his third Oaks title. He won in 1994 with Touch the Money and in 2008 with Afleet Alexandra.
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