Realm Reigns in $100,000 Alydar

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Realm was revved up and ready to go in Sunday’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga. The five-year-old Virginia-bred son of Haynesfield made a strong late run to win in a photo and picked up his first career stakes victory in the process.

Outplay was the early leader and quickly got up to set the pace with fractions of :24.32 and :47.96. The rest of the field sat just off the pace with Realm on the rail joined three-wide by Timeline and Kurilov, while the fan-favorite Patch brought up the rear. Into the backstretch, Outplay picked up the pace just enough to put a bit of ground between himself and the rest of the field, but his lead didn’t last for long. Kurilov was the first to make a move and as they entered the second turn he drew even with the early leader and surpassed him before they hit the top of the stretch. With a 1/16 left to go it was Kurilov’s race to lose, however, he was quickly running out of gas. Realm, with jockey Junior Alvarado aboard, had plenty left to give as he made a strong stretch run, getting up just in time to beat Kurilov by a nose in a photo for first. Patch also made a nice move on the outside to get up for third and was followed by Timeline in fourth.

“He ran good. We were expecting him to run good, even if he didn’t win He’d been working really good,” said jockey Alvarado. “Like I said before, I was talking to Barclay when I worked him last time, I said, ‘The chance to win a stakes race is right now because he feels like he’s on top of his game.’ We took a chance and tried to pick up a check, and we ended up in the winners’ circle.”

With a stakes victor now under his belt, Realm’s connections are looking forward to bigger and better things in the future. When asked about his next time out, trainer Barclay Tagg responded with, “I’m not sure what’s next yet. We’ll play around with it. Boy, I’ll tell you I’d love to [try the Grade, 1 $750,000 Woodward September 1]. We’ll see.”

Realm returned $27.20 to win, $9.90 to place, and $3.90 to show. Kurilov brought back $3.60 to place and $2.70 to show, while Patch paid $2.70 to show.