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Superior Saturday for First Dude from Florida to Ohio to New York

    First Dude enjoyed another superior Saturday as he approaches $500,000 in progeny earnings for the year. Valiant Virtue scored his second runaway victory in a row at Tampa Bay Downs, Due North was equally impressive at Mahoning Valley, and Lady Milagro passed the $100,000 mark in earnings with a fourth-place finish in the $100,000 Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct.

    Valiant Virtue went wire-to-wire under red-hot apprentice Madeline Rowland, taking the lead in the first jump out of the gate and continuing on through fractions of :23.21, :46.19 and 1:10.46. In the stretch, the 5-year-old gelding bred by Edward R. Schuster drew off to score by 6 1/2 lengths, earning a check for $11,500 and boosting his career total to $88,940 on a record of 4-4-4 in 21 starts. He had won his previous start by four. His clocking of 1:16.75 was just a tick over one second off the track record, and he earned a 91 ‘E’ speed figure from Equibase. 

    Due North became First Dude’s 15th winner of 2022 with Jose Bracho aboard. The $20,000 OBS June 2-year-old came from five lengths back with a three-wide move on the turn, and ran down 6/5 favorite Black Kettle to score by two widening lengths. The 5-year-old mare raced 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:07.13, paid $5 as second choice and collected $7,936 for her fifth career victory. 

    Kentucky-bred Lady Milagro earned $6,000 for her fourth-place finish in the Cicada, increasing her total to $101,700.

    First Dude’s progeny earnings soared to $474,429.