BALTIMORE – As an exercise rider for Rick Dutrow and then as an assistant to his brother Rudy Rodriguez, Gus Rodriguez has worked around his share of talented horses. In Phileas Fogg, Gus Rodriguez finally has one he can call his own.
A $62,500 claim last July at Saratoga, Phileas Fogg has won four of five starts for Rodriguez and owner Steve Shapiro’s Jupiter Stable. Friday, Phileas Fogg looks to give Rodriguez his first graded stakes victory as a trainer in the Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special.
A field of 10 was entered for the Pimlico Special, but trainer Cherie DeVaux said Wednesday that defending race winner Pyrenees – the 8-5 morning-line favorite – will have to scratch after exiting his most recent workout unsatisfactorily.
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Phileas Fogg won the Queens County Stakes at Aqueduct in December by nine lengths and is a neck away from having a five-race winning streak. After being beaten a neck in a Jan. 25 allowance, Phileas Fogg won the Excelsior, also at Aqueduct, by 5 1/4 lengths on April 5. He showed a new dimension in the Excelsior, prompting the other speed horse in the race, Mama’s Gold, to go, then taking eight lengths back off the pace. He roared past the pacesetter before the far turn.
“The first furlong he had to use the horse so he can do some damage to the other one, then he took back and the horse was switching leads back and forth,” Rodriguez said of his horse. “He wanted to go. Once he settled, everything was fine. I said to my owner if Mama’s Gold is not in the race, he’s the lone speed, he breaks and they don’t bother him, that may be better.”
With a rail draw and Kendrick Carmouche aboard, Phileas Fogg is likely to be sent to the lead. If so, he could very well be confronted by Encino or Awesome Aaron, both of whom have shown a propensity to be forwardly placed.
Encino, trained by Brad Cox, won the Lexington Stakes last year while racing on the lead. Encino was under consideration for the Kentucky Derby before a soft-tissue injury knocked him out of that race and sidelined him for the remainder of the year.
Encino returned from a layoff with an allowance win at Fair Grounds in January before setting the pace and retreating in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile. That result scrubbed plans to run in the Godolphin Mile.
Cox pivoted Encino to the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic, where he finished second to Mercante over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface. Encino won last year’s Lexington coming off the synthetic.
“I thought he ran a really good race at Turfway, he showed he can run on that surface, he showed he can run on the dirt,” Cox said. “The mile and three-sixteenths? As long as he gets a good forward position I think he should be able to handle it.”
Cox also sends out Star of Wonder, who makes his stakes debut after winning four of five starts. Star of Wonder, a half-brother to 2020 Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil, ended his 3-year-old season with a second-level allowance win at Churchill Downs before winning a third-level allowance going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct on April 4. His last two wins have come with blinkers off.
“Early on we felt like he needed them, we took them off his last two starts and he’s run some solid races,” Cox said. “Mentally, he was a little slow to come around. He’s definitely improved over last year.”
Red Route One is running 1 3/16 miles at Pimlico for the third straight year. In 2023, he finished fourth in the Preakness and last year he was fourth in this race. Two starts back he was a dominant winner of the Grade 3 Essex Handicap but regressed to a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap.
Paco Lopez rides for Steve Asmussen.
Awesome Aaron is coming off a 5 3/4-length allowance win at Oaklawn Park, a race for which he earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. That performance, by far a career best for the 6-year-old gelding by Practical Joke, came with the removal of blinkers by Norm Casse.
Just Steel, fifth in last year’s Preakness, is wheeling back in two weeks after running sixth in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Sprint for D. Wayne Lukas.
The field is completed by Cataleya Strike, winner of the Native Dancer at Laurel Park last out; San Siro, second in the Ben Ali; and Time for Trouble, fourth in the Bel Ali.
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