Rocky Sky captures the Grade 3 Waya Stakes at Aqueduct

Rocky Sky was back to her best on Saturday when winning the Grade 3 Waya Stakes at Aqueduct. The soft conditions and marathon distance proved to be the difference for Rocky Sky, who took up position in fourth place early under Manny Franco as longshot Tass led the field through pedestrian splits for the opening quarter-mile. Tass continued to lead the field into the stretch after completing the final of three turns, but it wasn’t long thereafter that Rocky Sky and Franco took the initiative. Their positional advantage proved to be the difference in the final eighth of a mile as they were able to stave off a late run from favourite Capital Structure to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths in 2:21.42.

“Both horses got pretty good trips,” said Brown. “I was concerned a little bit with Rocky Sky around the turn, but she still kicked on. She’s been a difficult horse to figure out. I cut her back, and then stretched her back out. She had me confused for a while. But it became clear that she did, in fact, want to run three turns today.”

Rocky Sky was purchased privately with Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock, following her victory in the Listed Salsabil Stakes at Navan.