BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Neoequos dominated in his first start on synthetic with a four-and-a-quarter-length victory in the $148,500 Presque Isle Mile at Presque Isle Downs Friday night also producing his first second stakes victory of the year and first in open company. Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. and ridden for the first time by Paco Lopez, Neoequos took the mile-and-one-sixteenth test against five other 3-year-olds and older.
The added-money triumph outside the Sunshine State by the 4-year-old Florida-bred son of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ Neolithic also produced a $4,000 Export Incentive check paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association to breeders Helen and Joseph Barbazon of Morriston, Florida and Dr. Matt and Lona Vuskovich’s Matalona Thoroughbreds of Gainesville, Florida.
Neoequos started well from the outside post six then chased Grounded into the clubhouse turn with longshot Fortune Seller a length farther back in third. Grounded was two in front out of the first turn with a pedestrian :25.07 quarter mile the proceeded to increase his lead to three lengths after a half mile in :48.70. Neoequos began cutting into the margin around the second turn and was nearly even with Grounded turning for home. Neoequos got to the front at the top of the stretch and sprinted clear passing the eighth pole, finishing up in 1:41.56, just .33 of a second off the track record set by Florida-bred Forever Souper in the 2024 Presque Isle Mile. Grounded was second by a nose ahead of 3-5 favorite Encino in third. They were followed in order by He’s a Mess, Fortune Seller and Jimmy the Hat. Brittain’s Kitten and Mackenzie’s Novva were scratched.
Neoequos paid $5.20 to win.
Neoequos now has two wins in six starts this year, both in stakes, having won the $75,000 Sunshine Turf versus Florida-breds at Gulfstream Park on January 17. It was also his 11th start at 10 different tracks going back to the 2025 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve in which he finished thirteenth after pressing the early pace.
He made his first seven starts at Gulfstream before traveling to Churchill Downs for the Derby. Between the Derby and the Sunshine Turf, he raced at Saratoga Race Course, Monmouth Park, where he won the $95,000 Jersey Shore Stakes in July of last year; Charles Town and Parx Racing.
Since the Sunshine Turf, he was third in the Oaklawn Mile (G3) at Oaklawn Park in March, second in the Steve Sexton Mile (G3) at Lone Star in May, fifth in the Hanshin presented by JRA (G3) at Churchill and third last out in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes (Listed) at Mountaineer.
In an 18-race career, he has five wins, four seconds and four thirds with earnings of $741,550 for owners C2 Racing Stable, Ian Parsard, Shining Stables, Stefania Farms, Ken T. Reimer, Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch.
Neoequos is a $22,000 graduate of the 2023 Ocala Breeders’ Sales October Yearling Sale where Joseph selected him out of Lisa McGreevy’s Abbie Road consignment
He is out of the stakes-placed Birdstone mare Bold Birdie, a half-sister to stakes-winner Quality Lass, stakes-placed Tenacity Zip and stakes-producer City Lass.
Bold Birdie has produced four winners from as many starters and seven foals. She has an unnamed 2-year-old filly by Mutasaabeq and an unnamed weanling full sister, both bred in Florida by the Barbazons and Matalona Thoroughbreds. She was bred to Neolithic in 2026.
Return to the September 19 issue of Wire to Wire
