Aqueduct: Boys At Tosconova sharp in allowance score

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Making his second start of the year, Boys At Tosconova got back in the win column in Friday’s third race at Aqueduct, stalking a slow pace set by Hillswick to the stretch, and edging away late to take an allowance sprint for nonwinners-of-three races lifetime by 2 1/2 lengths.

Hillswick set easy fractions of 24.00 and 47.55 seconds on the rail, resisted briefly when Boys At Tosconva ($2.60) ranged alongside turning for home, but could not match strides late with the winner, who finished under moderate urging from Ramon Dominguez.

“Around the three-eighths pole I started getting after him, and he just kept coming for me,” said Dominguez. “Past the wire, he galloped out very strong.”

Boys At Tosconova, last year’s Hopeful winner and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up, ran the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:17.46 over a fast main track.

“If he’s what he was last year he is supposed to show up today against these, and he did,” said trainer Rick Dutrow, who notched his meet-leading fifth win at the fall meet. “It didn’t look like a real grueling race for him. Maybe he was fighting the track a little bit. . . . this was kind of a slowish time for him, but that’s okay, we got the job done. He got back in the winners’ circle and now we get to point him for his next race.

“I was going to watch and see what I saw today, so for me the jury is still out as far as pointing him toward a huge race. I don’t know that we need to do that. Maybe another race will really get him into a groove and then we will be able to point him toward something that we really want to point him toward. But we have all kinds of options.”

Boys At Tosconova, who snapped a string of 19 consecutive losing favorites since Speight of Hand won Wednesday’s first race at 3-5, attracted $51,055 of the $65,637 show pool.