Despite racing four or five wide on both turns, Godolphin's Alpha cruised home to win the Grade 3 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct as the heavy 1/4 favorite. Long-shot Speightscity, sent to post at odds of 44/1, ran a huge race to finish second, while Tiger Walk rounded out the top three. Pacesetter How Do I Win faded to fourth.
Alpha has started off his three-year-old season in fine fashion by winning the Count Fleet and the Withers in back-to-back starts. As a juvenile, Alpha finished second to Union Rags in the G1-Champagne before running up the track in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
Alpha is a three-year-old son of Bernardini out of a Nijinsky II mare (Munnaya) trained by Kieran McLaughlin and ridden by Ramon Dominguez.
The payouts were fairly pedestrian given the presence of such a heavy favorite, with the exception of the return for a place bet on runner-up Speightscity, which came back at a fat $16.20 for a $2 bet.
Payouts:
Win: 7-Alpha ($2.70, $2.50, $2.10)
Place: 2-Speightscity ($16.20, $5.40)
Show: 6-Tiger Walk ($2.90)
$1.00 Exacta: $16.20
$1.00 Trifecta: $66.00
$0.10 Super: $19.05
$1.00 Grand Slam: $1.85
$1.00 Daily Double: $2.00
$1.00 Pick 3: $7.30
Race fractions below the jump.
Fractions:
1/4: 23.71
1/2: 48.04
3/4: 1;12.71
Mile: 1:37.72
Finish: 1:44.23
Internal Splits:
1/4: 23.71
1/2: 24.33
3/4: 34.67
Mile: 25.01
Finish: 6.51