Nobody Listens, a 5-year-old Indiana-bred gelding, won his second consecutive turf race when he captured Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Turf Monster Stakes over a yielding course at Parx Racing. Ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, Nobody Listens went to the front from the start of the 5-furlong turf stakes and was never headed. Trained by Tim Eggleston, who is based at Horseshoe Indianapolis, Nobody Listens upped his record to three wins in seven career starts on grass. The Turf Monster was his second straight win on the Parx lawn after taking the Parx Dash at 5 furlongs Aug. 22. The son of Conveyance has 14 wins in 26 career starts. He is owned by Matt Kwiatkowski, Jason Kaylor and Roger Browning. Gaffalione gunned Nobody Listens out of the gate and carved out fractions of :23.80 and :48.46. He was pursued down the backstretch by 24-1 longshot Smooth B, trained by Butch Reid Jr. and ridden by Mychel Sanchez. Gaffalione let Nobody Listens out a notch as the field came into the stretch and he responded, spurting away to win by 3 lengths. The 3-1 second choice in the field of 10 won in 1:01.40 and paid $8.20. Smooth B held second, 2 lengths ahead of Roses for Debra, one of two fillies in the field and the 3-5 favorite. Five Dreams, Alexis S, Determined Kingdom, Surprise Boss, Just Jeremy, All That Magic (the other filly in the race) and Patriarch Artie completed the order of finish.
Winning jockey Tyler Gafflione: “He broke alertly, just go from the one hole just let my horse around and just let him run his race.”
Winning co-owner Roger Browning: On going to the lead: “That was the plan. Get on it and go. Tyler (Gaffalione) had never ridden him before but he did his homework and he came to us and told us what he wanted to do and we let him do it. Just go. He’s tough. He’s an Indiana-bred we bought at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales as a 2-year-old in training. Ever since, he’s just been amazing. We knew we had a nice speed horse. We just brought him to Indiana and let him win a couple of stakes there. And when he developed, we started him out on the trail.” On a possible start on the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint: “We planned it out to avoid all the big boys for right now. And now we’re here and we’re hoping to go to the Breeders’ Cup.”
Winning co-owner Matt Kwiatkowski: “Pretty lucky to have an Indiana-bred that can run like this. We have a great trainer. We had a great jockey with Tyler today, who picked up the mount with Luis (Saez) down (with an injury). He did a great job, had a plan to be aggressive and took it to them and ran a great race. He loved it obviously.” Any concerns about the soft turf? “I was nervous. He’s never really run on soft turf and you never really know until they do it. Ran great.” Would this win make you think about the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint? “You never know. After that race we’ll see what the number is and what comes next. He’s in good form and doing great right now.” Was it the plan to go to the front? “That was Tyler’s plan and he’s a great rider so I’m not going to tell him to do anything different.”
Trainer Butch Reid (Smooth B, second): “He ran really great. He’s a tough old bird. It looks like he’ll run over anything, and it seems he likes the soft turf, too. We’re real happy with his effort.”
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. (3-5 favorite Roses for Debra, third): “The ground didn’t help her, for sure. It’s hard to make up ground on that turf course the way it is. It’s been raining a lot. I know my filly and she was going comfortably. When I asked, it was impossible to make up ground. She can pick it up, she’s trying, but it was too much.”
