After a 2025 season that trainer Derek Ryan termed a “disaster,” Two’s a Crowd is more than making up for it this year.

The 5-year-old gelding made it 3-for-3 in the Malouf Auto Group Starter Handicap Series, slipping along the rail to collar the pace-setting Tocayo in deep stretch for a half-length victory in the mile and an eighth turf feature on Friday at Monmouth Park.

The Malouf Auto Group Starter Handicap Series consists of four scheduled $40,000 grass races, each increasing in distance. The final leg is set for a mile and three-eighths on Sept. 7, but Two’s a Crowd has already clinched the $12,500 first-place bonus for Ryan after winning the first three legs.

After going 0-for-3 last year, Two’s a Crowd has won 5-of-7 starts this year and extended his winning streak to four. He would be on a six-race winning streak if not for a nose loss on Feb. 16 at Tampa Bay Downs.

“Last summer when we shipped North he really got sick,” said Ryan. “We could only get three starts out of him late in the year. The whole year for him was a disaster.

“We’ve got him right now. I always thought he’d like the turf even though it doesn’t show (in his pedigree). I got him back on it and now he’s rolling along.”

Ridden by Edwin Gonzalez, Two’s a Crowd stalked Tocayo for most of the nine furlongs on a firm grass course, with the other three horses in the race gapped well behind.

Coming out of the final turn, Gonzalez slipped up the rail and needed every foot of the stretch to get by Tocayo.

The winning time was 1:50.45, with Two’s a Crowd returning $2.60 as the prohibitive favorite.

Owned by Atlantic Six Racing, the same partnership that owns Eclipse Award winner Book’em Danno, Two’s a Crowd has notched five of his seven career wins this year.

Ryan said he was undecided about going in the final leg of the series with the New York-bred son of Cloud Computing, with a state-bred race at Saratoga at the end of the meet a possibility for his next start.

“Who knows? Maybe we’ll run in the final leg. You never know,” said Ryan.

Ryan said he always had faith in Two’s a Crowd becoming a solid horse, though it took a while.

“He came in the very same day Book’em Danno did as a 2-year-old and he was his workmate for the first two years,” said Ryan. “We always had high hopes for him.”

Ryan missed winning the Malouf Series a year ago by a point to Kelly Breen. He and Two’s a Crowd have since made amends.