Allowance a tough spot for comebacking pair

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The graded stakes winners Timeline and Sunny Ridge return off extended layoffs in Friday’s $85,000 allowance feature at Aqueduct, but the race came up tougher than their connections probably had hoped.

Timeline, 4, won the first four races of his career, including the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Belmont and Grade 3 Pegasus at Monmouth Park. He was sent off the 9-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth, but did not have the smoothest of trips and finished a well-beaten fifth behind winner Girvin. He completed his 3-year-old season with a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx last September.

“We tried to get another race out of him,” trainer Chad Brown said. “He was training well, but as I saw the race unfold and saw how little effort he put into it, he was just over the top. We decided to give him a break. He’s training very well, but he’s in tough. That’s a salty allowance race with horses in form running fast numbers.”

Manny Franco will ride Timeline as Javier Castellano, his regular rider, is serving part of a three-day suspension handed him from the California stewards.

Sunny Ridge, a three-time stakes winner over Aqueduct’s now-defunct inner track, makes his first start since finishing second in the Grade 2 Brooklyn at Belmont last June 10. Trainer Jason Servis said the gelding came out of that race “a little crabby” and was given the rest of the year off. He spent six months off at Mahoney Eden Manor, a farm in Saratoga, before joining Servis at Palm Meadows.

Sunny Ridge is trying a one-turn mile for the first time since he finished second in the Grade 1 Champagne in 2015.

Flash Trading could be the horse to beat in this spot. Since being claimed by trainer John Terranova for Gatsas Stables, Flash Trading has two wins and a second in three starts.

Flash Trading hasn’t run since winning a second-level allowance by a nose over Gift Box here on Feb. 4. Terranova said Flash Trading had been dealing with some foot issues following that race.

The one race Flash Trading lost recently was to Friday rival Pioneer Spirit, who went gate to wire in the mud in that Jan. 13 race. Pioneer Spirit is likely to get some pace pressure from Timeline on Friday.

“Hopefully it sets up well and he fires a good one,” Terranova said. “Hopefully we’re ready and a couple of the other ones need a race before they’re at their best.”

Splashtastic, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, is coming off an 11-month layoff owing to a chip in an ankle that surfaced right before Saratoga last summer. Before he went to the sidelines, he had finished second in a pair of races similar to this one, earning 101 Beyer Speed Figures in both starts.

Rodriguez said Splashtastic was ready to run several weeks ago, but a race at Parx he wanted to run in failed to fill.

Papa Shot and Bonus Points complete the field.