Awesome Speed entered for two stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Alan Goldberg isn’t exactly sure what he wants to do with his talented 3-year-old Awesome Speed, so he bought himself more time by entering him in both Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs at Aqueduct and the $100,000 Federico Tesio at 1 1/8 miles at Laurel.

Awesome Speed won three straight races, capped by a 1 1/4-length score in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 2. Goldberg stretched Awesome Speed out in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, but he got bumped hard at the break and finished fourth, 13 lengths behind the winner, Mohaymen.

“The last race was so confusing,” Goldberg said. “He had trained as good as any horse I ever had – easy, fast breezes – was doing great, and then you get banged around. Maybe he got the wind knocked out of him.”

Awesome Speed drew post 2 and has John Velazquez named for the Bay Shore. Also entered in the Bay Shore, race 9, was Unified, an eye-catching debut winner at Gulfstream Park; Awesome Gent, the winner of the Jimmy Winkfield; and Cocked and Loaded, King Kranz, Never Gone South, Richie the Bull, and Sallisaw.

◗ Good Luck Gus will try open company and 1 1/4 miles for the first time when he takes on four rivals in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Excelsior Stakes.

Good Luck Gus, a New York-bred son of Lookin At Lucky, won the Albany at 1 1/8 miles last year and the Haynesfield at 1 1/16 miles this year, both against New York-breds.

The Excelsior, which goes as race 3, also drew Turco Bravo, the upset winner of the Stymie; Kid Cruz, the winner of the John Campbell at Laurel; Madefromlucky, last year’s Peter Pan and West Virginia Derby winner; and Norumbega, the winner of the Grade 2 Brooklyn in 2014.