Hodges Photography / Alexander Barkoff
Enjoying his first winter in the Big Easy, Andrews T and S Racing’s Mr. Vegas secured his first stakes victory with a front-running 1 1/2-length score in the Grade 3, $100,00 Colonel E.R. Bradley H. at Fair Grounds on Saturday, meanwhile giving his sire Freud a fifth graded-stakes winner and 29th stakes winner.
Having finished on the edges in three previous forays into stakes competition in 2010 and 2011, Mr. Vegas was riding a two-race winning-streak – and a perfect two-for-two record at Fair Grounds – into the Bradley. Slightly overlooked in the wagering as third selection of six at odds of 5-1, the flashy five-year-old chestnut gelding, said by his trainer Richie Scherer to be “difficult to ride” and “hard to rate,” had Miguel Mena aboard for the second straight time.
Well before the field hit the first turn in the (approximately) 1 1/16-mile turf affair, Mr. Vegas had assumed command from his outside post and, while racing in the three- and four-paths throughout, led the field through comfortable fractions of 24.30, 49.41 and 1:13.84.
The drama was reserved for the final sixteenth. A closing Dubious Miss steadied slightly after Mr. Vegas drifted out despite a right-handed whip. After a review by the stewards that lasted nearly 10 minutes, there was no change in the order of finish. Mr. Vegas stopped the clock at 1:43.49.
When asked whether he expected to end up on the lead, Jockey Miguel Mena said, “Yeah, I did. He’s a very hard horse to ride. He’s a runner, you know? I was just glad he came back to me and made it easy.”
Both trainer and jockey addressed the dynamics of the stretch run. Mena said, “This horse kind of gets out a little bit. You can see it on the television, running sideways, getting out. I just did my best to keep him straight and I didn’t think I bothered the other horse.” Trainer Scherer said, “I saw it again and he did come out a touch, so I wasn’t sure if it was enough to change the outcome.”
Mr. Vegas has spent the majority of his career in the barns of Michael Hushion and Richie Scherer, depending on whether he was racing in New York or the Midwest. He is now a perfect three-for-three in New Orleans, with his Grade 3 Bradley victory capping second- and third-level allowance victories in November and December. Having raced exclusively on the turf, Mr. Vegas’ record now stands at 7-5-0 from 21 starts with $260,331 in earnings.
Bred by Berkshire Stud Mr. Vegas is the most successful of seven winners produced by Berkshire Stud homebred Lhotse, an unraced daughter of The Minstrel out of Grade 2-placed Bharal. Mr. Vegas was purchased by Paul J. Andrews as a yearling at the 2008 Saratoga New York-bred sale for $23,000.
Mr. Vegas’ sire Freud, New York’s leading stallion in 2008 and 2009, second in the state rankings in 2010 and 2011, and number one turf sire in the Empire State every year since 2007, stands for Sequel Stallions New York.
