Aqueduct: Noble Moon to be a short price in Jerome Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After two terrific performances as a longshot, Noble Moon most certainly will be a strong favorite in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct. But handicappers who didn’t have him when he won his debut at 25-1 in September certainly will be reticent to climb on his bandwagon at a much shorter price Saturday.

Options are limited in the Jerome, the first of four races for 3-year-olds on this circuit that offer qualifying points to the May 3 Kentucky Derby, but alternatives include Classic Giacnroll and the maiden Scotland.

Classic Giacnroll, a son of 2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, is a two-time sprint winner at Parx who comes out of a third-place finish in the Marylander Stakes going seven furlongs at Laurel Park on Dec. 7. In that race, he was five wide and came with a late run to just miss second.

The winner of that race, Joint Custody, came back to win the Maryland Juvenile Championship by 5 1/2 lengths. The fourth-place finisher, Extrasexyhippzster, came here to win the Don Rickles Stakes by five lengths.

“He’s dying to go long,” said Juan Carlos Guerrero, a former leading trainer at Parx who now is listed as the assistant trainer to his wife, Lisa. “When we ran him at Laurel, he was five wide on the turn, and galloping out, he went right by them. If he could’ve tucked in instead of gone five wide, he could’ve been second easy. He came back good; he’s doing good. We’re really excited.”

Classic Giacnroll has been at Aqueduct since mid-December and has worked twice over the inner track, including a bullet half-mile in 48.60 on Dec. 21.

“He’s just getting better by the day,” said Juan Carlos Guerrero, who drives two hours-plus each way from his home in Williamstown, N.J., to Aqueduct to train the horse.

Alex Solis, who has been replaced on Noble Moon by Irad Ortiz Jr., has picked up the mount on Classic Giacnroll, who breaks from post 7 in the eight-horse field.

Though Scotland is winless in two starts, he did finish second to a nice horse in Surfing U S A on Nov. 30 over Aqueduct’s main track. Scotland, a son of Horse Greeley, was in and among horses for most of the trip and did outfinish 4-5 favorite Monopolize, who came back to win his maiden next time out. David Cohen rides for Tony Dutrow.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

“We put him in there in case he belonged running,” said Dutrow, who will examine the past performances before committing to run. “He’s got a lot to prove, having only run against maidens and having not run two turns. His last race was encouraging.”

Noble Moon, who breaks from the rail, might try to duplicate his debut win, where he rode the rail at Belmont to a front-running victory. In the Grade 2 Nashua, he was severely compromised at the start but rallied from 12th to finish third behind Cairo Prince, the Remsen runner-up.

“It’s always a question how well they handle it if they don’t get the lead and they have to come from behind, so that makes you feel better going into the next race that it doesn’t really matter where he is,” trainer Leah Gyarmati said.

Lawmaker, a half-brother to Last Gunfighter, Pin and Win, Matuszak, Mental Iceberg, and Master Lightning complete the field.