More Than Ready got his second 2-year-old stakes winner in as many days on Sunday when Slipstream won the $150,000 Futurity S. (G3) at Belmont Park.
The victory earned the colt a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1), should his connections choose that route.
Slipstream, who broke his maiden a month ago at Belmont, had an eventful trip in Sunday’s six-furlong race. He was away well between horses, but had to take back when he was cut off between horses, leaving him in last after the first quarter-mile.
Jockey Joel Rosario guided him to the fence around the turn, where he made up ground steadily to be just two lengths from the lead at the top of the stretch. Rosario took the dark bay off the rail and through another narrow opening at the furlong marker. Slipstream showed an impressive turn of foot from there, winning by a length in 1:08.36 on the “good” turf course.
“I thought he would be a bit closer to the pace, but I train and let Joel [Rosario] ride,” said trainer Christophe Clement. “He rides better than I do and I train better than he does. He said he got really slammed coming out the gate. Otherwise, I thought he was cruising and going well. I love the way he finished.”
Clement said that Slipstream may go in the Juvenile Turf (G1) instead of the Sprint.
“If it’s up to me, yes,” Clement said of the longer option. “We have to see how he comes out of it and be sure the owners are on board and that everything goes well. I always like when you go to California, the idea of pushing that sprinter speed going six or seven furlongs to a mile.”
Slipstream is owned by Stephen Duncker’s Jump Sucker Stable and is now 2-0-1 in four starts and has earned $147,600. He was bred in Kentucky by Burleson Farm and McKenzie Bloodstock.
Coming on the heels of Bubble Rock’s win in Saturday’s Matron S. (G3), also at Belmont, More Than Ready now has 211 stakes winners, 96 of them graded, in his stallion career.
