Aqueduct: Readthebyline will play catch-me-if-you-can

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Neither of two $100,000 overnight stakes filled for Sunday so a trio of allowance races highlight the final card of racing over Aqueduct’s main track meet. Racing moves to the inner track on Wednesday.

The richest race on the program is a $79,000 second-level optional $62,500 claimer at 1 1/8 miles. It’s simple to know how things will go early, not as easy to know how they will go late. Early on, Readthebyline will be in front, so says trainer Richard Schosberg.

Readthebyline, coming off two poor efforts sprinting, will stretch out around two turns and will be the one to catch from the rail under five-pound apprentice Manuel Franco. The last time he ran 1 1/8 miles around two turns, Readthebyline was beaten just a neck when third in the Evan Shipman at Saratoga.

Schosberg gave Readthebyline a freshening following the Evan Shipman. In a similar condition race to this, but at six furlongs, Readthebyline finished last. A month later he ran in a seven-furlong division of the New York Stallion Stakes and finished eighth.

“He’s proven that he’s a good speed horse going long,” Schosberg said. “And he can gut it out. In the race at Saratoga he really showed a lot of guts. He came back, tried hard, lost the lead and it was a blanket finish.

“So yes, the idea is to get him back at the two turns. I’m not worried about the mile and an eighth. We drew the rail. There’s no mystery where we’re going.”

The key to Readthebyline’s success may hinge on whether someone goes with him early. Cougar Ridge is coming off a front-running victory in a first-level allowance going a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs on Nov. 13. Two Is to Many, makes his New York debut after showing speed in Florida.

A contested pace could set things up for horses like Mr Palmer and Point Taken. Mr Palmer drops into allowance company after finishing seventh in the Grade 2 Indiana Derby and fifth in the Grade 3 Discovery, both which came after he missed time due to surgery to remove a knee chip. Point Taken, trained by leading trainer David Jacobson, comes off a second in this condition on Nov. 28 behind stablemate Spa City Fever, who came back to win here on Wednesday.

The third race is a $74,000 second-level optional $62,500 claiming race at seven furlongs. Moonlight Song is in razor-sharp form with two wins and two seconds in his last four starts. In his most recent start, the Hudson Handicap, Moonlight Song finished second behind Palace, who came back to win the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap.

He will face three runners from Jacobson, including recent acquisitions via the claim box Candyman E and Kanturk Kid.

In the fifth, a $72,000 first-level optional $25,000 claiming race at six furlongs, the New York-bred Hay Shares seeks to begin a new win streak for Linda Rice. Hay Shares, who takes on open company for the first time, is making his first start since finishing sixth in the Mike Lee Stakes.