(from Belmont Park release)
After Market, bred by Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wygod from their dual grade I winner Tranquility Lake, makes his stakes debut in the $100,000-added Lexington Stakes (gr. IIIT) for 3-year-olds on the Belmont Park inner turf course Sunday.Tranquility Lake captured nine stakes races among 11 victories in a 27-race career that saw her earn more than $1.6 million. Included were grade I victories in the 1999 Gamely Breeders Cup and the 2000 Yellow Ribbon. Retired after the 2001 Breeders' Cup, Tranquility Lake was bred to Storm Cat by the Wygods the following year and the result was After Market, a colt who is now 2-for-2 for trainer Bill Mott as he attacks the 1 1/8-mile Lexington.After Market debuted in a Nov. 4 maiden special weight at Aqueduct and won by three-quarters of a length. He did not make his first start of 2006 until June 15, when he beat a nice group of entry-level allowance horses by 1 ¾ lengths going nine furlongs."We wanted to give him some time to develop last year," Mott said. "We would have run him earlier this year, but we were unable to get him in."Looking like a much-improved horse in his return, After Market sat comfortably off the pace and finished strongly to earn his second win."We were very pleased with that race," Mott said. "He did everything the right way. This is a step up, so we're just hoping everything works out okay."After Market will not be facing a large field in the Lexington, with just five rivals signed on.Darley Stable's Carnera, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, got his first stakes experience in his last start when third in the Hill Prince (gr. IIIT) June 9 behind Outperformance and Spider Power. Carnera stumbled at the start and then was briefly steadied in traffic, but the Old Trieste colt settled into a good ground-saving position beneath jockey Eibar Coa and gained the lead in the stretch before he was run down late over extremely soft going.Carnera, who finished no better than fourth in his first three races on dirt, could be one of the pace players in the Lexington, along with To Sender and Habsburg, also owned by Darley.Habsburg is another son of Old Trieste trying grass for the first time in the Lexington. Habsburg won a tough maiden special weight at Belmont May 29. Habsburg and Carnera will be coupled in the wagering.Juddmonte Farms' To Sender will try to do better than the fourth-place effort he ran in the Hill Prince. Starting out 2-for-2 in this country for trainer Bobby Frankel, To Sender has come up short in his last two, although his try in Keeneland's Transylvania (gr. IIIT) may be a throwout as he was rank from the start. Both of To Sender's North American wins have been at Santa Anita.Crossword is an A.P. Indy colt who is 1-for-3 on grass in Kentucky starting for Neil Howard.$100,000 Lexington Stakes (gr. IIIT, Race 8, 4:45 p.m.), 3-Year-Olds, 1 1/8 Miles (Inner Turf)
PP. Horse, Weight, Jockey
1. a-Habsburg (KY), 115, Edgar Prado
2. a-Carnera (KY), 117, Eibar Coa
3. After Market (KY), 117, Cornelio Velasquez
4. Cool Cassanova (FL), 117, Fernando Jara
5. To Sender (GB), 121, Kent Desormeaux
6. Crossword (KY), 117, Garrett Gomez
a-Darley Stable-owned entry