Sudden Surprise, Sky Flight win Big A stakes

NEW YORK (AP) Sudden Surprise and Sky Flight won the $100,000 stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct.

Sudden Surprise, the 1-5 favorite, beat Dr. Shane by 1 3/4 lengths in the Notebook for 2-year-olds bred in New York.

The colt trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez got his third stakes win, improving to 4 for 5 overall.

Pletcher called this year's crop of New York breds ''the strongest I've seen in a while. You know these races are going to be competitive, but I was pleased with his effort.''

Sudden Surprise paid $2.60 to win. The time was 1:11.27 for the six furlongs.

Sky Flight shaded Aztec Brave by a head in the Artie Schiller on the yielding turf. Joel Rosario rode for trainer Mark Casse as the 4-year-old colt got his fifth win in 11 starts.

Sky Flight paid $12.20 to win, running the mile in 1:37.69.