Aqueduct handicapping roundup: Week of March 15
GIRL POWER
Trainers Michelle Nevin, Leah Gyarmati, and Linda Rice have had solid winters at Aqueduct.
Nevin upped her record at the inner-track meet to 10-13-6 from 39 starters when Astronomo ($7.50) scored first time off a claim last Sunday. In 2013-14, Nevin is 6 for 16 with newly claimed runners and 3 for 10 the second time off the claim.
Gyarmati, formerly an assistant to living legend Allen Jerkens, sent out Noble Moon to capture the Grade 2 Jerome just two starts after a debut win at better than 25-1. He is training up to a possible start in the Wood Memorial on April 5, and Gyarmati is pointing Sweet Reason to the Gazelle that same day.
On March 7, Sweet Reason made her first start since a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was not fully extended to edge recent maiden graduate Aqua Regia by a half-length.
“If we are going to make the Gazelle, you don’t want to come back off a long layoff and have her just lay it all out there and then have to run back in 30 days,” Gyarmati said. “I kind of think this was perfect because it was well within her, [she] did it easily, it was a nice work, she learned something, she came back happy, and hopefully the next step will be a forward move instead of just a level move or a downward move.”
Rice turned the big 5-0 on March 7 and celebrated the next afternoon by sending out the veterans Quick Money ($8.30) and Won Great Classic ($7) to win at the Big A and the improving Kid Cruz ($10.40) to win the Private Terms at Laurel.
Quick Money and Won Great Classic have 13 inner-track victories between them and pushed the stable’s meet earnings close to the $800,000 mark.
Kid Cruz, like multiple stakes-winning stablemate Palace, was claimed from Bill Mott. He rallied for second against a speed bias in his 2014 debut Jan. 26, and after breaking slowly and trailing by as much as 18 lengths through the opening stages of the Private Terms, he closed furiously to win going away by four lengths, with a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 91.
“After we claimed this horse, we evaluated him and thought he was a little immature mentally and detected some slight sensitivity in his left shin, so we backed up on him a little and freshened him up,” assistant trainer Sam Randazzo said. “Linda thought that the mile and an eighth ... and his running style would be suited to the Private Terms. I do think he will run farther than what he ran today, so we could see him in some longer races in the future.”
The Wood is the next likely start for Kid Cruz, a son of 1999 Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid. The queen of turf sprints, Rice may have a horse for the spring classics.
SPEED DOMINATES WEEKEND STAKES
With the notable exceptions of Kid Cruz and Sahara Sky, who is likely coming back to New York again for the Carter Handicap and the Met Mile after becoming the first San Carlos Stakes repeat winner in more than four decades, speed ruled last weekend’s stakes from coast to coast.
At Santa Anita, Game On Dude (Big Cap), Winning Prize (Kilroe Mile), and California Chrome (San Felipe) all won on the front end. California Chrome ran himself into the Kentucky Derby discussion with a 107 Beyer.
In the Tampa Bay Derby, Ring Weekend was never headed from the rail at 14-1 and took a huge leap forward as well to earn a Beyer (94) that was several lengths faster than his maiden win a month earlier.
At Fair Grounds, Heitai outsprinted the favored Delaunay for the lead and widened at every call of the Duncan F. Kenner.
It was no different at Aqueduct, where Oliver Zip ($13.40) broke on top and drew off to score in the Fred “Cappy” Capossela under mild urging. The Bay Shore here on April 5 might be next, trainer Kelly Breen said.
“I know visually he did it easy [Saturday], but I saw a tired horse,” Breen said of Oliver Zip. “We’ll see how he comes out of this race and might point to the Bay Shore.”