OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Moments after Eightyfiveinafifty scored a 2 1/2-length victory in Saturday's Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct, trainer Gary Contessa said that the dream of running in the Kentucky Derby was still alive.

 

The caveat, Contessa said, was he wanted to talk things over with jockey Ramon Dominguez to get an opinion on whether the horse could indeed go a distance of ground. If Dominguez tells Contessa what he told reporters after the race, there will be no Kentucky Derby try for Eightyfiveinafifty.

 

"My opinion, I think the horse is probably a one-turn horse," Dominguez said after the race. "Even a mile, as long as it's one turn. I mean, he was very straightforward, very straight the first part. When it was time to pick it up from the three-sixteenths pole home he was drifting out pretty good. Other than that he just has a lot of natural speed."

 

Eightyfiveinafifty used that natural speed to take control of the Bay Shore soon after the start. After getting briefly distracted by the lack of a rail coming out of the chute, Eightyfiveinafifty put his mind back on his business and scored an uncomplicated victory in the $200,000 Bay Shore.

 

Hurricane Ike, making his first start on dirt, finished second, 2 1/2 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Remand. Raynick's Jet finished fourth while Noah's Dream finished fifth. El Rocco was pulled up with an injury. New York Racing Association officials said he had to be euthanized due to a fractured left knee.

 

The Bay Shore was a good bounce-back race for Eightyfiveinafifty, who bolted as the 1-4 favorite in the Whirlaway in February. Contessa equipped Eightyfiveinafifty with a blinker on the outside of his right eye, in order to help keep the horse focused. Aside from cocking his head to the left, the horse stayed relatively straight through fractions of 22.67 seconds and a half in 45.01. He covered seven furlongs in 1:21.89 while drifting out. Eightyfiveinafifty is a son of Forest Camp owned by Harold Lerner, John Moirano, and Team Stallion Racing.

 

"I'm glad to get this one behind me," Contessa said by phone from his upstate home where he was recovering from surgery.

 

"I thought it was impressive. I still think the Derby Trial" - a Grade 3 one-mile race at Churchill Downs on April 24 - "is not the dumbest idea in the world. Today, I will admit he looked like a miler or seven-eighths horse. But if we run him in the Derby Trial in three weeks and if he runs off the screen, he punches his own ticket."