Adam Coglianese
Repole Stable’s talented juvenile turfer Notacatbutallama scored his second straight stakes victory in Friday’s $80,000 Super Mario Stakes at Aqueduct, leading fellow New Yorkers James Jingle and Sunlover across the wire for an Empire-bred trifecta.
Heavily favored at odds of 2-5 to win the 1 1/16-mile turf contest for the potent team of Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez, Notacatbutallama was off a beat slow, but moved up to secure a groundsaving position at the rail in fourth in the early stages, while Bernie the Jet, tracked by Sunlover and Noosh’s Tale, led the way through an opening quarter in 24.02 and half in 49.00.
Bernie the Jet maintained a narrowing advantage through the far turn, while Notacatbutallama, directly behind Bernie the Jet and hemmed in by a rival to his right, found himself looking for running room exiting the far turn.
When a seam opened up three wide at the top of the lane, Notacatbutallama responded instantly to prompting, accelerated quickly and took over in upper stretch before drawing off to a 3 1/2-length victory in a final time of 1.44.31 for 1 1/16 miles.
James Jingle (Harlan’s Holiday), last of seven for the first three-quarters of a mile and as much as 10 lengths from the front, threaded his way through rivals with an energetic stretch drive to get the place at 22-1, finishing a neck ahead of Sunlover (Sunriver), a last-out maiden breaker, who kept on well to finish third after contesting the pace at 30-1. The New York-bred trifecta paid $239.00 for a $2 wager.
After breaking his maiden at second asking by an impressive 6 1/2 lengths at Saratoga on August 20, Notacatbutallama ran a solid fourth in the Grade 2 With Anticipation on August 30 on short rest. Second next out in Belmont’s Grade 3 Pilgrim to BC Juvenile Turf runner-up Noble Tune, on October 8, he scored a convincing first stakes victory by 1 1/4 lengths in Belmont’s Incurable Optimist at Belmont on October 28.
With three victories and two seconds in six starts, Notacatbutallama has banked $191,000.
A fourth generation product of Happy Hill Farm breeding, Notacatbutallama was foaled at Sue and Gary Lundy’s Cedar Ridge Farm in Pine Plains. He is one of five foals to start and the third winner out of Self Rising, a stakes-placed daughter of Hansel ($164,931). Her second foal was nine-time winner and six-figure earner Toque by Alphabet Soup ($147,396).
Notacatbutallama first sold as a 2011 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred Saratoga yearling for $50,000 to Nick de Meric, who turned him around as a two-year-old at the OBS Spring sale, where he was purchased by Repole Stables for $105,000.
Self Rising currently has a yearling filly by Mineshaft, no reported foal this year and was bred in the spring to Girolamo.
