DECOY DADDY WINS STAKES AT MIDDLEBURG

Irvin S. Naylor’s Decoy Daddy set almost all the pace in the $50,000 Temple Gwathmey (Gr. 3) and pulled away to a 3 1/2-length victory over Riverdee Stable’s Dictina’s Boy at the 90th annual Middleburg Spring Races on Saturday, April 23.

(Douglas Lees photo)

Ridden by Darren Nagle, Irish-bred Decoy Daddy went to the front at the start of the 2 1/2-mile race over National Fences and briefly gave up the advantage to Bill Pape’s Mixed Up, ridden by Danielle Hodsdon, after a mile. But the 2010 Noel Laing winner quickly took the lead again and came home without a challenge in an impressive victory.

Now trained by Tom Foley, Decoy Daddy ran the Gwathmey distance in 5:30.80 on soft turf at the Virginia course. In his first start of the year, he had finished second to Country Cousin in the $45,000 Budweiser Imperial Cup at the Aiken Spring Races in South Carolina on March 26.

Dictina’s Boy finished 6 3/4 lengths clear of Gwathmey third-place finisher Pierrot Lunaire. Call You in Ten was fourth, and Mixed Up finished fifth in a field of five. Slip Away, the 2010 Temple Gwathmey winner and Eclipse Award champion steeplechase horse, was scratched because of the soft ground.