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FREUD’S BAVARO WINS 2ND BIG A STAKES IN HOLLIE HUGHES; OTHER FREUDS WIN IN LOUISIANA, FLORIDA, ETC.
By Rab Hagin
Scoring his ninth win and third consecutive tally in 72 days, multiple stakes winner BAVARO ($312,605) won Aqueduct’s Hollie Hughes Stakes on Presidents’ Day, February 18, becoming the tenth FREUD stakes winner on Aqueduct’s outer dirt – along with Grade 1 victors SHARP AZTECA, FRANNY FREUD, and GIANT RYAN. It was the striking gray/roan’s first outing for new owner All In The Family Racing and under the care of new trainer Linda Rice. He was favored among six starters in the $103,600 six-furlong Hollie Hughes, with stakes-winning rivals finishing second, third, and fifth behind him.
Bavaro overcame a bobbled start to advance four-wide from fourth place in pursuit of the early leader, taking command on the turn and drawing clear to finish under a hand ride. Winning jockey Junior Alvarado, who has been aboard for Bavaro’s last three consecutive starts – all Aqueduct victories – since December 8, revealed that the plan had been to lead from the get-go, but that did not happen: “He kind of missed the break…so I had to go plan B,” explained Alvarado. “I let him settle in, put him on the outside; then after that, from the half-mile pole, he pretty much took me all the way around.”
Trainer Rice, who acknowledged that she had been “pretty excited” about running Bavaro in the Hollie Hughes, reported that the 5-year-old “had been training really well coming into the race.
“I was a bit concerned (that) there was a lot of speed,” Rice added. “He didn’t break that sharp today, but Junior (Alvarado) rode him beautifully. This was the first stakes win for All In The Family Racing.”
A juvenile stakes winner on Aqueduct’s (late) inner dirt, Bavaro is among six racing-age offspring out of his unraced dam – the only one sired by Freud and only stakes winner. Bavaro’s 2-year-old half-sister, sired by a $3,500-fee freshman stallion, sold for $135,000 at Keeneland’s 2018 September yearling sale.
Nine days earlier (February 9) at Delta Downs in Louisiana, Freud’s indestructible black-type stakes-winning son, JUST STORMIN ($282,355), won the $60,000 La. Bred Premier Night Gentlemen Starter Stakes by a daylight margin over nine rivals for his ninth career victory and third consecutive tally. Owned by Craig Drago, Just Stormin led from gate to wire in the 1 1/16-mile dirt event under lights.
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