Photo: Adam Coglianese
Eric Fein’s Swag Daddy celebrated his last day as a juvenile by winning his second straight New York-bred stakes race, drawing away in the final furlong to defeat six by 4 1/2 lengths in the co-featured $75,000 Restrainor Stakes on Aqueduct’s New Year’s Eve Card.
Four weeks ago Swag Daddy made a strong late run to capture the 1 mile and 70-yard Damon Runyon by a head for trainer Rick Dutrow, defeating four of the rivals he would also face going the same distance in the Restrainor. Teaming up again with Damon Runyon pilot Junior Alvarado and breaking from the rail after the scratch of the inside horse, the son of Scat Daddy was bet down to odds on favoritism by post time.
After an even break for all in a field that did not sport much obvious early speed, Alvarado and the typically late-running Swag Daddy, opted to throw down the gauntlet: they went straight to the front and, by the time the field rounded the clubhouse turn, led by just over a length, tracked by Disco On. Brooklyn Red and Coalition ran together third and fourth another length back.
Disco On made a strong bid in the far turn, drawing even with Swag Daddy, but at the three-sixteenths pole Swag Daddy dug in, made his way completely clear by the furlong marker and ultimately opened up to win by 4 1/2 lengths. Coalition, a 20-1 longshot, closed into second, while second choice Live for Today came up the rail to grab third. After a half-mile run in 47.94, Swag Daddy completed the 1 mile and 70 yards over a fast inner track in 1:43.87. Completing the order of finish were Disco On, Willy Beamin, Quiet Favorite and Brooklyn Red.
In his six starts as a juvenile, Swag Daddy has won two stakes and compiled a record of 3-0-0, with the three victories coming in four starts since moving to Rick Dutrow’s barn from Derek Ryan. His earnings now total $111,490.
Bred by Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag (now Vinery New York at Sugar Maple), Swag Daddy is one of seven winners out of Mrs. Filio, a winning Kentucky-bred daughter of Eastern Echo and granddaughter of multiple Grade 1-winner Mrs. Warren.
Sugar Maple acquired Mrs. Filio at the 1997 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale for $65,000. She has produced New York-bred Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes runner-up What a Tale, by Tale of the Cat ($128,080), and New York-bred stakes-placed juvenile filly Anjorie, by A. P Jet ($102,035), both bred by Sugar Maple. Barren in 2010, Mrs. Filio has a soon-to-be yearling colt by Bluegrass Cat and was bred in 2011 to Any Given Saturday.
Swag Daddy changed hands at public auction twice, selling first to Nancy Ross as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York Preferred yearling in 2010 for $72,000, and then going to Eric Fein the following March for $170,000 at the OBS Select Two-Year-Old sale.
