Bank Sting collects her fifth stakes victory in Sunday’s Dancin Renee at Belmont Park. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.
John Terranova succinctly summed up Bank Sting and what he and his team need to do keep the Central Banker mare at the top of her game now at age 5.
“She’s a runner,” Terranova said on NYRA’s America’s Day at the Race broadcast a few minutes before the featured $100,000 Dancin Renee Stakes Sunday at Belmont Park. “We just try to keep her happy and stay out of her way.”
Nobody showed up in Bank Sting’s way Sunday and just like in seven of her prior 11 starts she came out on top, winning the 6-furlong Dancin Renee under Joel Rosario. Bank Sting broke well and tracked the early speed of the comebacking The Important One up the backstretch and around the turn before taking over in the stretch on the way to a 5 1/2-length victory. Bank Sting won in 1:10.82.
“She’s a bit antsy at times in the gate, but she was very good today,” Terranova said. “You never know what you’re going to get race-to-race with her. She has her little fits, but you just have to go with her. You can’t fight with her. Joel got to know her really well last time and they get along great; as everyone that’s ridden her has.”
Bank Sting became a five-time stakes winner in the Dancin Renee for her co-owners Joe and Anne McMahon and Hidden Brook Farm. Bred by and foaled at the McMahon’s McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, Dancin Renee boosted her bankroll to $582,050.
The Dancin Renee also marked Bank Sting’s first start at 6 furlongs. She’s run 7 furlongs on four prior starts and came into the Dancin Renee off three straight races at 1 mile, including a second last time out in the $200,000 Critical Eye Handicap on Big Apple Showcase Day in late May at Belmont.
Rosario rode Bank Sting in the Critical Eye, where she finished 4 lengths behind Make Mischief. With no Make Mischief in the field and despite meeting open-company stakes winner Time Limit and recent graded-stakes competitor Kept Waiting, bettors hammered Bank Sting down to 4-5 for the Dancin Renee.
The Important One, making her first start since a third behind Bank Sting in the Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Series Dec. 5 at Aqueduct, lost her footing a bit at the start but recovered enough to take the lead through the opening strides. She led by a length from Bank Sting through the opening quarter-mile in :22.50, with Time Limit and Kept Waiting not far behind.
Bank Sting and Rosario applied more pressure to The Important One through the half in :45.85, drew on even terms turning for home and took the lead at about the 3/16ths pole. Bank Sting drew off from there, by a length from The Important One at the eighth pole and through 5 furlongs in :57.96 and eventually by daylight at the finish. The Important One held second by 1 1/2 lengths from Kept Waiting, who was a neck clear of Secret Love.
“She broke really well and she put herself more in the race today than last time,” Rosario said. “She was happy up there. Last time, she broke and everyone got away and she had a lot of dirt in her face the first furlong. Today it helped her that she was more in the race and in the clear. I learned a little bit last time and now I know a little better for the next one.”
Terranova said the new $125,000 Johnstone Mile Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares out of the new Wilson Chute Aug. 12 at Saratoga Race Course would most likely be next for Bank Sting.
“She’s a beautiful filly and we’re grateful to have her,” he said. “We’re looking forward to Saratoga. … There’s good spacing in between, so that’s next on our radar.”
Bank Sting already owns two stakes wins at a mile, including her most recent victory prior to the Dancin Renee against open company in the Heavenly Prize Stakes March 6 at Aqueduct. She also won last year’s Critical Eye at Belmont.
Raised at McMahon of Saratoga, Bank Sting continues to fly the flag for New York’s leading sire Central Banker. He came into the day well clear on the Empire State’s general sire list with progeny earnings of nearly $2.3 million and potentially on the way to his second straight leading sire crown.
Bank Sting is the fifth foal out of the stakes-placed New York-bred Precise End mare Bee in a Bonnet. She’s a half-sister to four other winners – including the stakes-placed Liberty Island and her full 4-year-old sister Lot of Honey. Bee in a Bonnet is also the dam of an unnamed 2-year-old filly by Central Banker and a yearling colt by the late Laoban. She was bred to McMahon’s Solomini last season.
