Aqueduct: Talented but fragile Zhivago dangerous in turf feature

Zhivago, seen about as often as Halley’s Comet, makes his 6-year-old debut at Aqueduct in Friday’s $77,000 feature at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

The three-turn race carries first-level allowance conditions or an optional $35,000 claiming price and drew 14 horses, including two also-eligibles.

This will be Zhivago’s first start in New York since a fourth-place finish in a 2010 maiden race at Saratoga behind the multiple graded stakes winner Boisterous. In the nearly three years that have elapsed since his off-the-board finish through wintry conditions in the 2010 Valedictory Stakes at Woodbine, Zhivago has made it to the races just three times.

Nonetheless, Zhivago, who is in for the $35,000 tag, will be looking for his third straight win. He cleared his first allowance condition going 1 7/16 miles at Gulfstream Park off a 370-day absence in February 2012 and returned 10 months later to capture a second-level allowance over the same course at 1 3/8 miles.

“He gets a lot of time off between races due to multiple little problems,” trainer Jim Bond said. “He’s hard on himself, I guess you could say. He’s a monster when he’s right, though, and needless to say, he likes the distance.”

The distance is an unknown factor for just about everyone else, including lukewarm 3-1 morning-line choice Unitarian, a Todd Pletcher-trained 3-year-old best known as the record-breaking 694th Saratoga winner for the sidelined John Velazquez. That 1 3/16-mile race was Unitarian’s first in blinkers, and his only subsequent grass race was off a 48-day break at 1 1/8 miles, where he ran third while finding his best stride belatedly.

Wayward Sailor, who went wire to wire at 1 1/2 miles on the inner dirt last winter, makes his first start off a claim by Pat Quick and figures to supply whatever pace there is.

Royal Blessing, who made many a horses-to-watch list when blind-switched into the stretch Oct. 2, has the rail.

Hyper tops Red Smith field

A stakes tripleheader is on tap for Saturday, with the Grade 3, $250,000 Red Smith Handicap flanked by a pair of $100,000 overnight events: the Virgo Libra, a one-mile turf race for 2-year-old New York-breds, and the Move It Now at the same distance on the main track for older New York-breds.

A baker’s dozen entered for turf in the Red Smith, the last graded turf stakes of the year in New York, with Hyper, a late-blooming Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred trained by Chad Brown, the 120-pound highweight. The field, with weights, from the rail out is: Artic North (113), Imagining (118), Exclusive Strike (116), Slip and Drive (115), Sky Blazer (116), Tannery (116), Sandyinthesun (113), Hangover Kid (116), Howe Great (116), Mission Approved (116), Hyper (120), Nutello (118), and Quick Casablanca (116).

Percussion entered for dirt only.