Rotknee soars to seventh stakes victory, and 11th overall, in Monday’s Leon Reed Memorial at Finger Lakes. SV Photography.
Two days removed from his younger half-sister collecting her second graded stakes victory, Buck Butler’s homebred Rotknee won the seventh stakes of his career in Monday’s $50,000 Leon Reed Memorial at Finger Lakes.
The 5-year-old son of Runhappy overcame a slow and bothered start in the 6-furlong Leon Reed and came away a convincing 5 3/4-length winner under Andre Worrie. Rotknee also improved to 11-for-22 overall and scored his second win in as many tries at Finger Lakes in his first start in Western New York since taking the 2022 Ontario County Stakes as a 3-year-old.
Rotknee’s victory also followed My Mane Squeeze’s victory in the Grade 3 Fasig-Tipton Dogwood Stakes for Butler. Mike Maker trains My Mane Squeeze and Rotknee, who are out of the winning Speightstown mare In Spite of Mama.
Sent off as the even-money favorite in the field of six for the Leon Reed, Rotknee broke a bit slow and was squeezed between rivals after the break.
Lady’s Golden Guy, a 20-1 longshot looking for his first win in four starts this season, spurted away to a clear lead thanks to Rotknee’s poor beginning and led through the opening quarter-mile in :22.80.
The lead didn’t last long as Rotknee and Worrie recovered from the bad start and took over shortly after the quarter-mile split. Rotknee opened up a 5-length lead after a half in :45.54 as seven-time winner The Institute started his run from the back of the pack. Rotknee opened his lead up to 8 lengths in midstretch and past 5 furlongs in :57.88 and finished clear on the wire in 1:11.20 over the sloppy and sealed track.
The Institute held second, 3 3/4 lengths ahead of 43-1 longshot Tacony Road, with Lady’s Golden Guy fourth.
Bred by Butler and foaled at Keane Stud in Amenia, Rotknee and My Mane Squeeze are two of four winners out of In Spite of Mama. She’s also the dam of the 6-year-old New York-bred Into Mischief horse Lookin for Trouble, a winner and multiple stakes-placed runner for Butler and Maker, and 4-year-old New York-bred Bolt d’Oro colt Mama’s Gold, a four-time winner with earnings of $191,041.
In Spite of Mama is also the dam of Willful Mama, a New York-bred 2-year-old filly by 2019 Preakness Stakes winner War of Will who finished second in a maiden special weight at Aqueduct September 13; a yearling full brother to Rotknee and a weanling filly by Honest Mischief born May19.
Rotknee bounced back from a sixth in the John Morrissey Handicap August 8 at Saratoga Race Course, where he also broke slow and came home last of six. He had won two of four before that race – the Affirmed Success at Aqueduct and the Say Florida Sandy January 28, both at Aqueduct. Rotknee picked up $30,000 for the Leon Reed win and boosted his earnings to $695,330 from a record of 11-3-1 in those 22 starts.
