Albie made a successful career debut when he charged from just off the pace to capture a maiden special weight contest on the turf at Belmont Park Sept. 23.
The chestnut colt became the first winner for his dual G1-winning sire, Alpha, whose first crop are hitting the racetrack this year.
Breaking alertly under jockey John Velazquez, Albie sat just off the pace of leader Scotty Brown through the early stages of the mile-and-one-sixteenth turf contest. Moving up to challenge his rival on the far turn, Albie took command in the stretch and pulled away to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
Bred in New York by his owner, Pepi Weis, Albie is out of the mare Hopephilly, an unraced daughter of Champion Thunder Gulch. Albie is a half-brother to the multiple Stakes-placed filly Sugar Trade, and hails from the immediate family of multiple Graded Stakes winners Follow The Money (G2 Dahlia S., etc.) and Daddy Nose Best (G3 Sunland Derby, etc.).
Winner of both the G1 Woodward Stakes and G1 Travers during his racing career, Alpha’s first crop are juveniles this year. In addition to the Travers and Woodward, Alpha also won the G2 Jim Dandy and G3 Withers Stakes and was second in the G1 Champagne as a two-year-old.
