Sweet Brown Sugar, a daughter of Collected bred by Chester and Mary Broman, dominate Monday’s Shesastonecoldfox Stakes at Finger Lakes. SV Photography.

Sweet Brown Sugar came into the $40,000 Shesastonecoldfox off a flashy maiden victory in open company last month, giving plenty of reason to deserve the favorite’s role in Monday’s feature at Finger Lakes.

The 2-year-old daughter of Collected ran to her 1-4 odds, shrugging off a challenge from Maggy’s Palace around the far turn before drawing clear to a 5 1/2-length victory in the 6-furlong open stakes.

Bred by Chester and Mary Broman and foaled at their Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, Sweet Brown Sugar improved to 2-for-2 in the Shesastonecoldfox. She won her debut – also as the favorite – in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden race Oct. 18 at Finger Lakes for owner Richie Rich Racing Stable and trainer Paul Barrow.

Maggy’s Palace, fifth in the Lady Finger Stakes last time out, broke sharp in the Shesastonecoldfox under Jackie Davis before conceding the lead to Sweet Brown Sugar and Jeremias Flores.

Sweet Brown Sugar took over from there and clicked off a tepid opening quarter-mile in :24.03 with mild pressure from Tomaki with Maggy’s Palace and She She’s Shadow chasing from there. Sweet Brown Sugar shook off Tomaki entering the far turn, took some pressure from Maggy’s Palace midway on the bend and turned back that foe approaching the half in :48.09.

Sweet Brown Sugar turned for home well clear and opened up by 4 lengths in midstretch. She cruised to the finish from there, winning in 1:12.40 over the fast track. Maggy’s Palace held second, 7 lengths in front of She She’s Shadow with Tomaki, World Bank and Unbridled Sister completing the field.

Sweet Brown Sugar, who earned $24,000 to boost her bankroll to $43,260, originally sold for $10,000 through the Sequel New York consignment at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. She was then offered as part of the Scenic Sales consignment at this year’s OBS June sale and brought $32,000 from Nick Hines, agent for Richie Rich Stables.

Sweet Brown Sugar is the first foal out of the Broman’s homebred Bodemeister mare Rachel’s Blue Moon, the winner of two of 11 starts and $97,096. Rachel’s Blue Moon is out of the Broman’s homebred multiple stakes-winning and Grade 1-place El Corredor mare Beautiful But Blue, who is also the dam of stakes-placed Montebello. Beautiful But Blue won five of 17 starts and earned $395,450. She’s out of the multiple stakes-winning Dixie Brass mare Beautiful America, who won six of 21 starts and earned $523,927 for the Bromans from 2002 to 2004.

Straight Arrow duplicates big effort 14 days ago with victory in Empire Classic to highlight Empire Showcase Day. NYRA Photo.

Maybe the surface ultimately doesn’t matter for Straight Arrow.

Trainer Mike Dini believes his horse will be better on turf, despite his running fifth in his only try on the grass September 15. Dini entered him in a second turf race a month later, but when it was rained off, he left him in and watched him romp by 9 lengths and record a 101 Beyer Speed Figure.

Off that performance, Dini opted to keep him on dirt and stretch him out to 1 1/8 miles in the co-featured $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes on New York Showcase Day Sunday at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. Sent off as the 5-2 second choice, the son of Arrogate made his trainer look smart, taking the lead at the quarter pole and rolling to an easy 2 3/4-length win on a muddy and sealed track.

“We ran him back in 14 days, but to me he’s like a 3-year-old going to the Kentucky Derby,” said Dini. “He’s lightly raced and I really don’t train hard. The meet is coming to an end and he’s a hard horse to train. It took two years to get him to the races.”

Bred by Patricia Generazio and foaled at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, Straight Arrow, out of the winning Numerous mare Lulu’s Number, was bought for $30,000 by Laura Barrish as a 4-year-old at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. He did not debut until June at Monmouth Park, running fifth in a maiden special weight. He broke his maiden in his second start, also on the Jersey Shore, then had a win and a second in state-bred races at Saratoga Race Course.

Straight Arrow showed promise on turf and dirt heading into Sunday’s Empire Classic. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.

That’s when Dini decided to get a look at the half-brother of Disco Partner on turf, and why not, as that Generazio runner was a graded stakes winner on the sod and ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint twice, while banking more than $1.4 million in an 11-win career.

“He’s Disco Partner’s brother, and he would have won that day if you watch the race,” Dini said. “[Joel] Rosario is coming up and they cut him off. That’s why I believe at some point down the road he’ll be a better turf horse. This kind of racetrack helps him because he has real flat feet and he can get a hold of it.”

Longshots Lobsta and Cicciobello won the early battle and led down the backstretch through a quarter-mile in :23.03 and a half in :46.87. Straight Arrow, Barese and Olympic Dreams were three across the track chasing the pacesetting pair, with favorite Drake’s Passage in sixth. Jockey Jairo Rendon started his move aboard Straight Arrow on the turn, collared Cicciobello on the far turn and opened up down the lane. Sheriff Bianco and Un Ojo closed for second and third, respectively. The winning time was 1:50.51.

“He’s a good horse and knows how to run, you just ask him when you’re ready to go and he gives you everything. He made my day here,” Rendon said. “I was worried a little bit because the turn is right there and we were in the outside post. We got lucky and he has some natural speed, so he put me there and other horses stayed back, so we were able to save some ground in the first turn. I sat back a little behind the speed and just waited until home and asked him. When you ask him, he’s gone.”

Straight Arrow, who increased his career earnings to $295,000 with the $137,500 winner’s share, is one of nine winners produced by Lulu’s Number, who has been bred to 10 stallions during her breeding career. In addition to Disco Partner and Straight Arrow, Bass River Road, Don Six’s Number and Fly Fly Away have all earned at least $100,000.

– Paul Halloran

Know It All Audrey and Javier Castellano en route to victory in Sunday’s Empire Distaff. NYRA Photo.

• Three Player’s Stable’s and Oscar Barrera III’s consistent 4-year-old Know It All Audrey earned her first stakes victory Sunday with a victory in the co-featured $250,000 Empire Distaff Stakes on Empire Showcase Day on the final day of the Belmont at the Big A meeting.

Ichiban was first out of the gate on the muddy track with Know It All Audrey breaking close behind and settling at her tail with Sunset Louise taking up the second position to their outside. Ichiban set early fractions of :24.42 and :49.41 while a relaxed Know It All Audrey dropped back another half-length.

Javier Castellano sent Know It All Audrey closer to the leader again at the start of the turn and angled out a path as Sunset Louise dropped back. Ichiban didn’t give in easily and sill held the advantage at the top of the stretch before Know It All Audrey continued her determined run.

Know It All Audrey collared the longtime leader in the final sixteenth and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:51.57 for the 9 furlongs on the muddy and sealed track.

“When I saw the track condition and they sealed it and the rain kept falling, I knew she was going to give us a good race because she’s always shown up every single time she’s run for us and her record on a sealed, muddy, good track has always been pretty fantastic,” said Barrera, who also trains the filly “Another thing is the distance. She can go a mile and an eighth, which gave us more confidence today because most of these horses [in this race] can’t go the mile and an eighth or they weaken after a mile. It makes a big difference for her.”

Bred by Geraldine Mazza and foaled at Song Hill Thoroughbreds in Mechanicville, Know It All Audrey boosted her earnings to $501,612 with seven wins and eight other top-three finishes in 24 starts. In her 10 starts this season, the daughter of Shackleford has finished in the top three eight times for $303,440 in earnings.

The Empire Distaff also marked the first stakes win for Barrera, who had his first starter in 2011.

Know It All Audrey’s people celebrate Sunday’s Showcase Day success. NYRA Photo.

“Emotional, happy, super excited,” he said about the milestone. “As a claiming trainer, it’s pretty tough to win stakes races with claimers, so this is definitely the topping on the cake for all of us.”

Know It All Audrey was claimed by her owners for $16,000 last September at the 2022 Belmont at the Big A fall meet when she won by 7 3/4 lengths for Rob Artras and G and A Racing Stables.

Know It All Audrey is out of the stakes-placed Midnight Lute mare Know It All Anna, whose other runner is placed. Know It All Anna herself is one of two stakes performers from six winners out of the Danzig daughter Legion Of Merit alongside the stakes-placed Street Icon.

Each of the four dams on Know It All Audrey’s page have produced at least one stakes performer with all but Know It All Anna also producing a stakes producer as well.

Know It All Anna produced an Instilled Regard colt last year who sold for $130,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale and a Lexitonian weanling filly born in March.

– Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Rotknee and Jose Lezcano cruise to victory in Sunday’s Hudson Stakes on Empire Showcase Day. Walter Wlodarczyk/NYRA Photo.

William “Buck” Butler joked with trainer Mike Maker before the final weekend of October rolled around – rain or shine depending on where you were – and came through with a lofty prediction.

“This is hardware weekend,” Butler said after winning his second stakes on Sunday’s Empire Showcase Day card to close the Belmont at the Big A meeting. Rotknee provided the back half of the double in the $150,000 Hudson Stakes, about three hours after his half-sister My Mane Squeeze won the $200,000 Maid of the Mist Stakes.

Butler also celebrated a victory in Saturday’s Best of Ohio Sprint Stakes with his homebred Trojan Tale.

Hardware weekend indeed.

Rotknee put an exclamation point on the stretch with a 1-length victory over Ny Traffic and five others in the $150,000 Hudson going 6 1/2 furlongs. The 4-year-old son of Runhappy, winner of last year’s Damon Runyon, Mike Lee and Ontario County for Butler and Maker, won his third of seven starts in 2023 and eighth overall from 14 starts.

Rotknee won four of five starts at 3 to earn New York-bred champion 3-year-old male honors. He was off from late June 2022 until early March 2023, and the Hudson marked his first start in state-bred company since winning last year’s Ontario County at Finger Lakes.

Buck Butler leads his second Showcase Day winner Sunday after Rotknee took the Hudson. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.

“He’s had a little time off there for the last couple of months, but he came back and this is exactly what I was looking for,” Butler said. “Jose [Lezcano] did a great job. He kept his face clean and on a day like today with his speed, we just hung on.”

The 4-1 third choice behind 2021 Hudson winner Ny Traffic and Today’s Flavor, Rotknee settled into second behind the latter through a quick opening quarter-mile in :21.77.

Lezcano allowed Rotknee to make steady progress around the far turn and took over by the half in :44.36, a length in front of Today’s Flavor with the others led by Thin White Duke well back. Rotknee extended his advantage turning for home and found himself 5 1/2 lengths clear in midstretch. Ny Traffic and Thin White Duke cut into that margin late but were never a serious threat to the winner.

Lezcano, aboard Rotknee for his prior four starts that included back-to-back wins followed by back-to-back defeats, learned plenty from the most recent fourth behind Ny Traffic in a 6 ½-furlong open-company optional-allowance Sept. 15 at Aqueduct.

“Last time, I feel like I grabbed him too much,” Lezcano said. “He broke and I tried to really restrain him. Today, I feel like that wouldn’t work, so I let him break and go on with his business. The way the track played today, it played to his favor. The sealed track helped.”

Foaled at Keane Stud in Amenia, Rotknee is the second foal out of the winning Speightstown mare In Spite of Mama.

In Spite of Mama’s first foal, the 5-year-old New York-bred Into Mischief colt Lookin for Trouble, was a winner and multiple stakes-placed for Butler and Maker. He earned $170,220.

In Spite of Mama is also the dam of the 3-year-old New York-bred Bolt d’Oro colt Mama’s Gold, a three-time winner in 11 starts with earnings of $118,901; and the 2-year-old Audible filly My Mane Squeeze. She is also the dam of a New York-bred yearling filly by 2019 Preakness Stakes winner War of Will and a weanling full brother to Rotknee born May 11.

In Spite of Mama, an 11-year-old out of the Carson City mare Mama Theresa, went 3-2-2 in 17 starts for Butler and Maker from 2014 to 2016.

Butler bought Mama Theresa for $65,000 at the 2005 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training. She won six of 25 starts, placed in two stakes and earned $240,898 for Butler and Timothy Twomey and the late trainer Dominic Galluscio. In Spite of Mama is Mama Theresa’s second foal and a half-sister to four other winners, including stakes winner A Freud of Mama, an earner of $399,818 who also finished third in the Grade 3 Matron Stakes at Belmont Park in 2019 for Butler and Maker.

– Tom Law

Sterling Silver, DQ’d last time in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, makes amends in the Iroquois. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.

• A consistent performer at the top levels of racing with multiple graded stakes placings, Mark Anderson’s Sterling Silver added a third stakes victory to her resume Sunday in the $150,000 Iroquois on Empire Showcase Day.

The 6 1/2-furlong dirt sprint saw race favorite Sterling Silver drop back early to be last before Javier Castellano piloted her up the outside of the field down the backstretch. The 4-year-old daughter of Cupid was even with the second flight of runners by the time they entered the turn with the leading Leeloo enjoying a 2-length advantage through early fractions of :22.67 and :46.03.

The field tried to close in on Leeloo at the top of the stretch, but she put on another burst of speed, with Sterling Silver the lone pursuer still within a chance. Leeloo didn’t make it easy and Sterling Silver had to spend the whole stretch closing the distance, getting up just in time to win by a neck over Leeloo.

Sterling Silver stopped the clock in 1:16.47 as the top pair finished 6 3/4 lengths ahead of Captainsdaughter. Cairo Sugar finished fourth. Funny How, Vallelujah and Bank On Anna completed the field.

“We were much the best today, it was a good setup,” Castellano said. “They went pretty quick early and she’s a come from behind type of horse, so that helped us. She got up right on the wire. She’s getting better and better. I like the way she does it, especially against New York-breds.”

Trained by Tom Albertrani, Sterling Silver won for the sixth time in 18 starts to go with six placings and $652,988 in earnings.

Sterling Silver has flipped back and forth between New York-bred and graded stakes this year, entering off second via disqualification in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Stakes last out. It was the second straight year she’s placed in the race after finishing third in 2022. Sterling Silver’s graded stakes placings also include a second in the Grade 2 Prioress Stakes and third in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes.

“She’s very consistent,” Albertrani said. “She only ran one bad race in the [Grade 1] Ballerina at Saratoga, but that was a pretty hot race that day. The way she ran the last time was her best race. She’s just a solid horse. It’s great when she puts in that kind of effort. I always thought six to seven [furlongs] is her game, but probably not more than that.”

Sterling Silver was foaled at Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent and bred by longtime Gallagher’s Stud Farm Manager Mallory Mort and his wife Karen, who had bought her dam Sheet Humor for $14,000 in foal to Midnight Lute at the 2015 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

The fourth foal out of her dam for those owners, Sterling Silver was sold at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Showcase to Anderson’s Anderson Acres out of the Denali Stud consignment.

Unraced herself, Distorted Humor’s Sheet Humor has produced two winners from three to race – with those winners all bred by the Morts. Sheet Humor is out of the Grade 3 winning Sheets, who is out of the stakes-placed One Hot Minute.

Sheet Humor produced a New York-bred Not This Time colt named Rhetorical in 2021 and he sold for $320,000 the following year at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. Sheet Humor was sold for $3,000 to K.O.I.D. at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale and foaled a Central Banker colt in the country the following year for breeder Kim Chang Man.

– Melissa Bauer-Herzog