A lot of races are just great fun to watch. That was definitely the case this afternoon, when BYE BYE MELVIN and John Velazquez had a grand time winning an optional allowance at Saratoga. Melvin is fun to watch no matter what he does; Mean Mary’s younger half-brother (by Uncle Mo) is one seriously handsome dude.

And he clearly felt like running today in the 1 1/8 mile route on the inner turf. The pair had the lead under the wire the first time, continuing all the way down the backstretch with a bit of distance on the rest of the field. They closed the gap going into the final turn, with eventual second-place finisher Street Ready getting within a length of them before Johnny urged Melvin to kick on. Their margin of victory was 3 1/2 lengths.

Now 5, Melvin is a homebred for Mr. Alex G. Campbell, Jr. Karlovy Vary, dam of Melvin and Mean Mary, is another Campbell homebred and a graded stakes winner of the 2012 Central Bank Ashland Stakes-G1 at Keeneland. Melvin became a graded stakes winner himself in the 2020 Saranac Stakes-G3, also at Saratoga.

Congratulations to Mr. Campbell and his team on Bye Bye Melvin’s fourth career win!

Our thanks to Jay Sloan for this great photo!