All Hands faces winners for first time in Tesio
All Hands got his career started too late to be considered for any of the Triple Crown races, but trainer Kiaran McLaughlin hopes he could develop into a graded stakes runner by the summer.
All Hands will take on winners for the first time in the $100,000 Federico Tesio Stakes, one of six stakes races on Saturday’s 10-race program that begins at 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
In many years, the Tesio could produce a Preakness starter. Only three of the seven entrants in Saturday’s Tesio are nominated to the Triple Crown.
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All Hands, a Godolphin-owned, Darley-bred son of Unbridled’s Song, is not Triple Crown nominated. After finishing 12th of 13 in a six-furlong maiden race Feb. 7 at Gulfstream, he became one of four next-out winners from that race when he won a mile-and-70-yard maiden race over Aqueduct’s inner track March 15.
McLaughlin didn’t expect All Hands to excel at six furlongs but didn’t want to start him at a mile the first time out. McLaughlin also said the colt raced a bit greenly in his debut.
All Hands, who will be ridden by Fernando Jara, figures to be in the mix early in the Tesio, run at 1 1/16 miles around two turns.
Other top contenders in the race include Noteworthy Peach, Top of Mind, and Bodhisattva.
Key contenders
All Hands (Last 2 Beyers: 86-28)
* All Hands, first-time Lasix, won a two-turn maiden race over the inner track by seven lengths in his last start, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 86.
“All Hands is training great, and this looks like a good spot,” McLaughlin said. “He’ll be forwardly placed.”
Noteworthy Peach (Last 3 Beyers: 85-57-57)
* Comes off a first-level allowance win at odds of 39-1 on March 28 in a one-turn, one-mile race at Laurel. In his lone start around two turns, he finished second.
“He liked the one-turn mile at Laurel,” trainer Gary Capuano said. “Hopefully, he’ll do the same thing around two turns. He definitely ran huge last time.”
* Noteworthy Peach competed in claiming races in his first three starts, winning a $40,000 claimer Jan. 9. He was gelded shortly after that race, owing to an undescended testicle, Capuano said.
* Capuano might have to make a jockey change as named rider Horacio Karamanos might have to go to Charles Town.
Top of Mind (Last 2 Beyers: 84-73)
* Won his debut sprinting Feb. 13 at Laurel before finishing second to Noteworthy Peach in an allowance race March 28, a race in which he had a 2 1/2-length lead in midstretch. He finished six lengths clear of the remainder of the field.
* As a son of Curlin out of a Thunder Gulch mare, he should relish the two turns, which he will be trying for the first time.
“He’s a big old colt,” trainer Rodney Jenkins said. “I’ve had to take my time with him. He’s a little bit more on the muscle, a little more racy. The light’s coming on. If that light comes on, I think he could be a nice horse.”