Susie Raisher Photo

Rotknee rumbles through the rain to take $100K Say Florida Sandy

by Keith McCalmont

William J. Butler’s graded stakes-placed homebred Rotknee stormed to his fifth career stakes score in Sunday’s $100,000 Say Florida Sandy, a seven-furlong sprint for older New York-breds at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Mike Maker and expertly piloted by Jose Lezcano, the 5-year-old Runhappy horse tracked the early foot of Andiamo a Firenze before pouncing to the lead through the turn en route to a four-length score over the sloppy and sealed main track.

Butler credited Lezcano for a perfect trip aboard Rotknee, who improved his record to 17-9-3-1 with the sharp score as the slight 9-5 mutuel favorite. He returned $5.70 for a $2 win bet.

“Jose knows this horse very well. He’s a champ,” Butler said. “He’s [Rotknee] been a lot of fun and loves being in with his New York friends. I would love to see him step it up a notch, but we leave that up to Mike.”

Disarmed broke alertly from post 4 under Ruben Silvera and marked a contentious opening quarter-mile in 23.15 seconds under pressure from Rotknee and Andiamo a Firenze as the field raced six across the wet track.

The Luis Rivera, Jr.-piloted Andiamo a Firenze asserted himself to mark the half-mile in 46.78 seconds but a full-of-run Rotknee surged to the lead through the turn, overtaking the game frontrunner en route to a comfortable score in a final time of 1:27.19.

The multiple stakes-placed Aggregation arrived late to complete the exacta by a neck over Andiamo a Firenze, who was a neck better than fourth-place General Banker. Disarmed and Ocean’s Reserve rounded out the order of finish.

Lezcano has guided Rotknee to four of his wins, including a one-length score over muddy and sealed going in the state-bred Hudson traveling 6 1/2-furlongs here in October. The veteran rider said he was pleased with the effort of the ultra-consistent dark bay.

“He broke very good today and I worried a little bit about the seven-eighths, a little more distance for a three-quarters horse,” Lezcano said. “But today, he was relaxed the whole way and when I asked him, he was gone. The track helped with it being a sealed track to carry him through to the wire.”

Rotknee posted a trio of state-bred stakes scores as a 3-year-old, taking the seven-furlong Damon Runyon here, the seven-furlong Mike Lee at Belmont Park and the six-furlong Ontario County at Finger Lakes. He picked up a graded placing here in November when a close third to fellow New York-bred Bold Journey in the six-furlong Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap.

Klaravich Stables’ Aggregation arrived from a prominent runner-up effort to his Chad Brown-trained stablemate Dr Ardito in the state-bred Alex M. Robb on December 29 here.

Manny Franco guided the 5-year-old Flatter dark bay, bred by Graceville Breeding, from the inside post and worked to get his charge off the rail down the backstretch before rallying seven-wide from the top of the lane.

“The [one] hole that I got wasn’t easy and I just worked on the trip. It is what it is. Just second best,” Franco said.

Rotknee, a half-brother to multiple stakes-winner My Mane Squeeze, is out of the Speightstown mare In Spite of Mama, who is a half-sister to graded stakes-placed A Freud of Mama. He banked $55,000 in victory to take his total purse earnings to $582,955.

Live racing resumes Friday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the winter meet at Aqueduct Racetrack on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the winter meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.