Eugene Melnyk’s Lukes Alley, under leading rider Luis Contreras, notched his first career stakes win with an impressive turn in Saturday’s Grade 3 $174,000 Durham Cup, at Woodbine.
It was the second graded stakes win of the afternoon for the combination of Melnyk and trainer Josie Carroll following Leigh Court’s score in the $200,000 Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event, at Keeneland.
Lukes Alley, a four-year-old bay son of Flower Alley-Vaulcluse, arrived at the 1 1/8-miles Durham Cup from a driving score in a 10-furlong allowance tilt on September 12. It was just the second stakes start for the lightly-raced colt, having previously finished sixth in the Grade 3 Hawthorne last October.