BY BROCK SHERIDAN
DECEMBER 21, 2003—Florida-bred Shake You Down led from start as the 124-pound highweight to win the Grade 3 Gravesend at Aqueduct Racetrack under jockey Michael Luzzi. Giving away between eight and 14 pounds to his six rivals, the son of Ocala Stud’s Montbrook won by two-and-a-half lengths as the 4-5 favorite in the six-furlong contest, covering the distance in 1:09.55 on the fast track. Way to the Top was second with Gators N Bears third.
Shake You Down paid $3.80 to win.
Trained by Scott Lake for Robert Cole, Shake You Down earned $65,400 and pushed his earnings at that time to $988,560. In his next start at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 24, 2004, he would win the $300,000 Padua Stables Sprint, earning $165,000 to pass the million-dollar mark in earnings.
The victory in the Gravesend was the seventh win and fourth in a graded stakes in 13 starts that year for Shake You Down, who would be named the champion Florida-bred sprinter of 2003 by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
As part of a five-race win streak earlier in the year, Shake You Down won in consecutive starts the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap, Grade 2 True North Breeders’ Cup Handicap and Grade 3 Smile Sprint. That year he was also third after a poor start in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint won by Cajun Beat at Santa Anita.
Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud Farm, Shake You Down is out of Mauvin Gway, by Rajab. In March of 2007 at the age of nine, he retired sound to the Florida Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s farm at the women’s correctional facility in Lowell, Fla., where he lived to the age of 25.
An earner of $1,442,014, Shake You Down had 22 wins, nine seconds and eight thirds.
