Earlier this year Red Rifle set a new track record at Sam Houston in the Maxxam Gold Cup going 1 1/8-mile distance in 1:48.73 on a fast main track to defeat Frac Daddy by 2 3/4 lengths. He went gate to wire that day setting every fraction.
The Todd Pletcher camp believed he could and wanted to go further. Red Rifle proved that their intuition was correct in Saturday’s Yankee Affair Stakes going 1-1/2 miles on the turf.
Instead of going to the lead as he did in the Maxxam Gold Cup, Johnny Velasquez had him stalk the pace two wide and then challenged the leader at the head of the stretch. At that point he took command of the race and drew away convincingly to win by a 1-1/4 lengths.
Red Rifle is a home-bred for Twin Creeksby Giant’s Causeway out of the stakes winning dam May Night. This year he has had seven starts with two stakes wins and earnings over $173,00.00
