Litfin: Aqueduct Horses to Watch for week of Dec. 7
Litfin: Aqueduct Horses to Watch for week of Dec. 7
Dave LitfinDec 08, 2015
Litfin: Aqueduct Horses to Watch for week of Dec. 7
Jeremey Day's analysis of the Wednesday 12/9 card at Northfield Park.
It is no secret horse racing is a mature industry, and no surprise that it is on the lookout for some fresh thinking.The organizers of the annual Symposium on Racing and Gaming obviously share that perspective.
Saturday's Louisiana Champions Day card was drawn last weekend, and is headed by Louisiana-bred grass star String King, who will be favored in the Champions Day Turf. String King – bred, owned, and trained by Charlie Smith – drew post 1 in a 10-horse field and was installed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite under Richard Eramia.
Mike Stidham is leading trainer at Fair Grounds after three racing weeks, and it's not just that 10 of his 25 starters have won, but that 20 of them have finished third or better. Pretty much every horse Stidham has saddled at the meeting has at least run to expected form, if not beyond it. Horsplayers savvy enough to jump on the bandwagon from the start have been richly rewarded: Stidham's $2 win ROI stands at $3.07 entering this week's racing.
Steve Asmussen is in the process of laying out tentative early-2016 plans for a powerhouse group of 2-year-olds who turn 3 in less than a month, many of whom already have taken up winter quarters at Fair Grounds.
Racing officials and horseplayers are always happy to see a fresh face show up at Aqueduct in the winter. Lassofthemohicans returns from a six-month freshening in Thursday's $67,000 first-level allowance feature for fillies and mares going six furlongs over the inner track.
Total handle on Saturday’s Claiming Crown card at Gulfstream Park was about $10.1 million, up slightly from a year ago.
Lead Singer and Change of Command will top a full field scheduled to go 7 1/2 furlongs on the Gulfstream Park turf in Wednesday’s optional-claiming feature, which carries a $41,000 purse.
Horses to watch from Woodbine Harness.