Aqueduct: Strapping Groom puts injury behind him in Tom Fool

[bc_video_id:317431:]OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With a foot issue seemingly behind him, Strapping Groom looks to continue his ascension in the sprint division when he makes his 7-year-old debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct.

A field of seven was entered in the Tom Fool, but with Strapping Groom expected to be an odds-on favorite, the six-furlong race was carded as the fourth on Saturday’s 10-race card that includes the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham and Grade 2, $200,000 Top Flight.

Claimed for $35,000 by David Jacobson and Drawing Away Stable last May, Strapping Groom won 4 of 8 starts for his new connections including the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga in 2013. After a foot issue hampered him in a few subsequent starts, Strapping Groom ran second to Palace in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight before turning the tables on that rival in the Gravesend on Dec. 21. Strapping Groom beat Palace by 6 1/2 lengths and earned a 110 Beyer Speed Figure.

Jacobson had Strapping Groom entered in a stakes at Laurel in early January but scratched when he didn’t want to ship due to weather issues. He scratched Strapping Groom from the Grade 3 Toboggan on Feb. 1 due to a quarter crack.

Jacobson has been able to get three half-mile breezes into Strapping Groom since Feb. 17 and says the horse “is right on course” for the Tom Fool. Irad Ortiz will ride Strapping Groom from the rail.

Strapping Groom does have to carry 123 pounds, spotting three to nine pounds to the remainder of the field.

“That’s the weight he earned,” Jacobson said. “I’d rather be in that position and won those races.”

Though he scratched Strapping Groom from the Toboggan, Jacobson won it anyway with Candyman E, who is entered back in this spot for Jacobson and Al Gold’s Gold Square Stable. Strapping Groom and Candyman E are not coupled.

Candyman E is 2 for 2 for Gold and Jacobson since they claimed him for $62,500 out of a winning effort at Belmont on Oct. 26.

“I knew we were claiming a nice horse, a hard-hitting $50,000-, $60,000-, $75,000-type horse,” Jacobson said. “To win two stakes with him – one of them a graded stakes – is a surprise. Anytime you take a claiming horse and win a graded stake it’s a surprise.”

C.C. Lopez will ride Candyman E from post 2.

Saturday’s Charm was beaten a nose by Comma to the Top in this race last year, the first of what has become a nine-race losing streak. He comes off a second-place finish to the Jacobson-trained Moments Notiz in a third-level optional-claiming race on Dec. 26.

Dads Caps, Non Stop, and Sensational Slam – the second- through fourth-place finishers in the Grade 3 Toboggan – are back in here. Jake N Elwood completes the field.