OLDSMAR, Fla. – The well-named Disruptor threw a wrinkle in the gameplan of Disco Time and pulled a minor upset in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Racing in front of expected pacesetter Disco Time from the start, Disruptor held off an upper-stretch challenge from that horse and went on to a one-length victory in the Challenger. Disco Time, the 2-5 favorite, finished second, 7 1/2 lengths clear of Solo Venturi.
Mike Repole, among a large group of owners of Disruptor, said he and trainer Todd Pletcher were not going to concede the lead to the speedy Disco Time in the Challenger. Repole said he was content when longshot Paynter’s Prodigy overtook Disruptor into the first turn and went to the lead. Disruptor, under Irad Ortiz Jr., stalked the longshot through fractions of 23.34 seconds for the quarter and 46.75 for the half-mile before Disruptor forged to the front.
“When the [109-1] shot sat second, it gave us the target we wanted but you didn’t want the 1-5 as a target,” Repole said.
Knowing the horse had not broken well in several of his starts, Ortiz said he made sure Disruptor left the gate running.
“I feel like if [Disco Time] breaks in front of me and opens up three lengths, he’s going to be hard to catch,” Ortiz said. “So, I just tried to make the [front] the first 100 yards out of there and it worked out beautiful. “He broke good today, he helped me out of there after that I ended up in a great position into the first turn.”
Ortiz said when Disco Time, under Flavien Prat, came to him in upper stretch, “I had some horse to fight. Honestly, at the three-sixteenths pole he opened up a half-length and I hadn’t even hit him.”
Disruptor, whose owners include Spendthrift Farm, Big Easy Racing, and Titletown Racing, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.40, just. 20 off the track record set by Skippylongstocking in this race last year. He returned $7.60 to win.
Prat said he was content to sit off the early pace on Disco Time, who suffered his second straight defeat after winning his first five races.
“He settled down nice for me, he was better in the gate, he broke better, he relaxed better,” Prat said. “I made a good move turning for home, but [a mile] was as far as he wanted to go.”
Disruptor has now won 3 of 5 starts and is 2 for 2 since returning from a layoff after he got injured following a fifth-place finish in the Florida Derby.
“I think this horse has Grade 1 races in the future,” Repole said.
Disruptor’s next start could come in the Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba Stakes – race Repole and Pletcher won last year with Fierceness – at Churchill Downs on May 1.
Mystic Lake adds to local unbeaten record in Manatee
Mystic Lake ($2.40) was made to work for it, but she kept her undefeated record at Tampa Bay Downs intact with a 4 1/4-length victory in the $70,000 Manatee Overnight Handicap. My Magic Wand, one of the two horses who pressed Mystic Lake through a half-mile in 43.98 seconds, held second, three-quarters of a length over St. Olaf Rose.
The victory was the 13th victory from 23 starts for Mystic Lake, a 5-year-old daughter of Mo Town owned by Miller Racing and BAG Racing and trained by Saffie Joseph Jr.
Mystic Lake, under Flavien Prat, raced between Flowers for Me and My Magic Wand through the opening quarter of 21.90 seconds. Flowers for Me dropped out of it shortly thereafter but My Magic, Wand, under John Velazquez, stuck with Mystic Lake until the three sixteenths when the latter began to pull away.
Mystic Lake covered the seven furlongs over a fast main track in 1:22.17.
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