Stewards’ early call Sunday proves correct
A decision by the Gulfstream stewards early on the Sunday card ultimately proved a wise one.
Marty McGeeJan 26, 2015
A decision by the Gulfstream stewards early on the Sunday card ultimately proved a wise one.
Several of the area’s top 3-year-old prospects skipped the Holy Bull to await the Fountain of Youth, among them Remsen Stakes winner Leave the Light On, who worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 Sunday at Palm Meadows for trainer Chad Brown.
Double Ours could be poised to fire a peak race Thursday, when he takes on the comebacking stakes winners Den’s Legacy and Rivers Run Deep in the eighth race at Oaklawn Park. The second-level allowance at six furlongs has a claiming option of $40,000. Others making up the 10-horse field include Walt and Condo Closing, both of whom placed in Oaklawn stakes last year at 3, and Power World, who has been racing at Aqueduct.
Thursday’s $69,000 second-level allowance sprint at Aqueduct for fillies and mares isn’t restricted to New York-breds. It just looks that way.
The well-traveled Sachem Spirit may have found himself a home at Gulfstream Park, turning in a career-best performance when winning his local debut here earlier this month. As a result, Sachem Spirit will be wheeled back on relatively short rest to face eight rivals in Wednesday’s feature event, a $50,000 allowance race with a $62,500 claiming option, to be decided at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
In her first start, which came last November at Del Mar, Bad Ju Ju broke slowly, rushed up, then faded to fifth. Four weeks later at Los Alamitos, in her second start, she broke sharply and kept on motoring, crushing maidens by more than nine lengths.
Dave Litfin's horses to watch at Aqueduct for the week of Jan. 26.
In the unlikely event there is live racing at Aqueduct Wednesday, Wavell Avenue will seek her fourth consecutive victory when she tops a field of six entered in a $69,000 second-level allowance race for fillies and mares going a mile over the inner track.
Untapable, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2014 who is expected to be one of the leading older female dirt-route horses in the country this season, had the first timed workout of her 4-year-old season, going an easy half-mile Monday morning at Fair Grounds.
Trainer Rick Violette couldn’t have been more upbeat when asked how Upstart had bounced back from his terrific, 5 1/2-length victory over Frosted and seven other overmatched rivals in Saturday’s Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes.