Although finding a Kentucky Derby (G1) winner among the victors in the Remsen Stakes (G2) may send you back to 1994, lately the 1 1/8-mile stakes has produced more than its fair share of top-level 3-year-olds.
The 2021 Remsen winner, Mo Donegal , prevailed in the Belmont Stakes (G1), and the runner-up, Zandon , earned $2.2 million in his career. Meanwhile, last year's race, which featured Dornoch nosing out Sierra Leone, saw Dornoch take the Belmont Stakes and Haskell Stakes (G1) and Sierra Leone triumph in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1). For good measure, 2023 Remsen seventh Domestic Product won the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1).
"The Remsen has developed into a very solid race," trainer Chad Brown said.
A year after Brown suffered that narrow defeat in the Remsen with Sierra Leone, the four-time Eclipse Award winner will try to claim his first Remsen win since his initial one in 2014 when he sends out the duo of Keewaydin and Aviator Gui in the $250,000 Remsen for 2-year-olds Dec. 7 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
"They are both doing well coming into the race," Brown said.
OXO Equine's Keewaydin seems the more promising of Brown's two juveniles in the field of seven. The son of Instagrand , a stallion who raced for owner Larry Best's OXO Equine and was trained by Brown, is coming off a pair of sharp efforts in his two career starts.
In his Aug. 24 debut, Keewaydin finished third but was only a head and a nose behind Tip Top Thomas who later ran second in the Champagne Stakes (G1).
The son of the Officer mare Nothing But Heart then showed more early speed and posted a 1 3/4-length victory in an Oct. 12 seven-furlong maiden test, covering the distance in a fleet 1:22.09.
"He's stretching out from seven furlongs to a mile and an eighth, but he put in two really fast figures. It's just a question of whether he can go a mile and an eighth," Brown said. "He's a big, good-looking horse that we always have liked. I'm optimistic he can handle it."
Bred by Terrazas Thoroughbreds, Keewaydin sold for $140,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton The November Sale as a weanling.
Three Chimneys Farm's homebred Aviator Gui was shifted to turf for his third career start and finished fourth in the Awad Stakes. In his prior try, he registered a length win in an off-the-turf maiden race at a one-turn mile.
"I tried him on the turf because he had a good turf work and I'm trying to figure out which direction to go with him," Brown said. "After the turf race he's been galloping out stronger on the dirt than he had been, so I am optimistic to try him in the Remsen."
Aviator Gui is a son of Uncle Mo out of the mare Paulistinha, a Tapit half sister to 2017 Horse of the Year and Three Chimneys sire Gun Runner .
The field also features LNJ Foxwoods' debut winner Tux, a homebred Tapit colt who recorded a 3 1/2-length score for trainer Bill Mott in a Nov. 9 maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs.
The lone stakes winner in the field is David Hughes' Studlydoright, a Nyquist colt who posted a victory in the Nov. 2 Nashua Stakes at the Big A. Runner-up in the Sanford Stakes (G3) at Saratoga Race Course, his lone finish worse than second in six career starts for trainer John Robb was a seventh in the Hopeful Stakes (G1).
Godolphin's Poster is undefeated in two starts for trainer Eoin Harty, but the homebred Munnings colt notched both of those wins on turf.
As part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the Remsen offers points to the top five finishers on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis.
Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, December 7, 2024, Race 7Entries: Remsen S. (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 Tux (KY) Junior Alvarado 118 William I. Mott - 2 Aviator Gui (KY) Manuel Franco 118 Chad C. Brown - 3 Poster (KY) Flavien Prat 120 Eoin G. Harty - 4 Studlydoright (MD) Xavier Perez 120 John J. Robb - 5 Keewaydin (KY) Dylan Davis 118 Chad C. Brown - 6 Surfside Moon (PA) Kendrick Carmouche 118 James L. Lawrence II - 7 Gun Trader (KY) Francisco Martinez 118 Uriah St. Lewis -
