Dancers for Token takes the field all the way to win Monday’s Genesee Valley Breeders’ Stakes at Finger Lakes. SV Photography.
Glas-Tipp Stable’s homebred Dancers for Token made a winning return to stakes company Monday, going all the way on the lead to take the $50,000 Genesee Valley Breeders’ Stakes at Finger Lakes.
The 6-year-old son of Big Brown, sent off as the 3-1 third choice in the field of five reduced by four scratches, set all the pace under Luis Perez for his second win in three starts this season. A winner of a 1-mile and 70-yard allowance-optional two starts back June 7 and second in a similar race at the same distance July 25, Dancers for Token improved to 5-for-24 with $163,260 in earnings.
Trained by Jonathan Buckley, Dancers for Token went to the front early in the 1 1/16-mile Genesee Valley and opened up a 1 1/2-length lead through the opening quarter in :25.37. He extended the margin to 2 lengths at the half in :50.22 with 7-5 favorite Uno and 8-5 second choice Six Percent chasing in second and third.
Dancers for Token continued to roll on the lead through 6 furlongs in 1:14.44, opening up 4 lengths and eventually by 5 1/2 in midstretch. Six Percent made no dent in the gap in deep stretch but held second, 5 1/2 lengths behind the winner. Simply checked in 6 ¾ lengths behind the runner-up in third, with Anything Pazible and Uno completing the field. Dancers for Token won in 1:46.32.
Dancers for Token is out of the New York-bred Gold Token mare Token Bay, who was campaigned in partnership by Glas-Tipp and Caladon Farms on the NYRA circuit from 2006 to 2008.
Token Bay’s first foal, the New York-bred Raffie’s Majesty gelding Raffies Bay, won for Glas-Tipp and trainer Robbie Davis and earned $66,069. She’s produced three other foals, including the unraced 2-year-old Big Brown colt Ollie Can Dance.
Dancers for Token improved to 4-for-9 at Finger Lakes. He started his career on the NYRA circuit with Davis and finished ninth in the 2019 Albany Stakes as a maiden at Saratoga Race Course on Big Apple Showcase Day. Dancers for Token broke his maiden going 1 mile on the main track in early June 2020 at Belmont Park before adding two more wins in allowance company at Finger Lakes in 2021.
Big Brown, champion 3-year-old male and winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2008, stands for $5,000 at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions in Stillwater.
