Friend Ofthe Devil speeds to first stakes win in NYSS turf sprint

By Alec DiConza

It’s safe to say that the beginning of Friend Ofthe Devil’s career did not go as planned. The son of Honest Mischief finished eighth and ninth in his first two starts, on the dirt at Saratoga Race Course last summer.

Trainer Carlos Martin then made a switch to grass for Friend Ofthe Devil’s next race and was rewarded when the colt owned by Marc Holliday’s Blue Devil Racing Stable and Jerold Zaro won for fun by 6 1/4 lengths.

In the eight months since that maiden score, Friend Ofthe Devil has risen to the top of the New York-bred 3-year-old turf sprint division. He won his first stakes when dominating Saturday’s $145,500 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series, a 6-furlong sprint for 3-year-old New York-breds on the outer turf at Aqueduct.

“He’s just a horse that always showed a lot of ability,” Martin said. “We were very disappointed in his first two races and things didn’t go right. It’s funny, Irad Ortiz said ‘Maybe he’ll be a turf horse,’ because he was disappointed after he rode him the second time. I talked to Marc (Holliday) after the race and said, ‘Irad said we have a turf horse here.’ I’m glad we got him on the turf.”

Friend Ofthe Devil contested the Spectacular Bid as the 1-5 favorite off a 6-furlong allowance win in April. Stablemate Dancing Bear broke quicker out of the gate, but that didn’t matter when Friend Ofthe Devil coasted to the lead on the inside and sprinted through a quarter-mile in :21.98 with a 1 1/2-length lead. The colt maintained that margin through the turn, and after a half-mile in :43.92 he spurted to an even bigger lead under Christopher Elliott and crossed the wire 4 lengths in front of runner-up River Of Time. I’m Due finished third, followed by Dancing Bear. Friend Ofthe Devil finished in 1:07.41, less than a second off the track record.

“Leaving there, he did hit the gate. He broke out a little bit, but after that he relaxed nice and was doing it easy,” Elliott said. “He’s a very classy horse. He’s a horse you can’t really take too much of a hold of because he’ll lug out. You have to let him do his thing, but he’s a talented young horse and I’m excited that I had the opportunity to ride him.”

Holliday said he was “thrilled” with his colt’s performance and praised the New York Racing Association for its New York-bred stakes program.

“NYRA has spent so much time and effort to support this program,” he said. “We want to have the best races, and we also want to have our New York-bred and New York-sired horses well represented. Honest Mischief has been a really honest sire, and he has some very nice horses out there. Friend Ofthe Devil is one of them. It’s a little extra satisfaction when you get into the winner’s circle with a horse like that.”

After three 6-furlong victories, Friend Ofthe Devil stretch to a mile for the Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Series in his next start.

“He looked great and I’m excited about maybe giving him an opportunity with a little more distance staying in the Stallion Series in the Cab Calloway – he was an old family friend, Cab Calloway,” Martin said of the legendary singer, band leader and racing fan. “Hopefully, if we can get him to cooperate and relax a little, a mile might be within his scope.”

Friend Ofthe Devil was bred by Laurel Least, Farview Farm and Robert Tugel. He sold for $37,000 as a weanling at the Fasig-Tipon fall mixed sale at Saratoga in 2022, and brought $145,000 as a yearling the following August at Saratoga. He is the third foal out of the unraced Bodemeister mare Fabuleux. The other foal to race is two-time winner Janssen, a son of Accelerate and an earner of $94,887.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/06/21/friend-ofthe-devil-speeds-to-first-stakes-win-in-nyss-turf-sprint/

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