Bucket Beat challenges older horses in Sydney Gendelman Memorial Handicap

Bucket Beat looked good winning his turf debut in the Green Carpet Stakes less than two weeks ago. Can he duplicate that performance coming back quickly while challenging his elders?

That’s the question handicappers must ponder in Saturday’s $75,000 Sydney Gendelman Memorial Handicap for Ohio-breds at Belterra Park.

Bucket Beat, who earned a career-best 75 Beyer Speed Figure for his one-length win at 11-1 odds on May 29, is the 5-2 favorite on the track’s morning-line for the 1 1/16-mile turf race.

Notably, trainer Tim Hamm is 0 for 16 with 3-year-olds challenging older horses on turf. That includes Muir Woods, who won the Queen City Oaks, but came back 21 days later and finished a distant ninth as the 5-2 favorite in the Vivacious for older fillies and mares.

The best recent turf race in the nine-horse field belongs to the 6-year-old Silver Tongued, who rallied from fifth after the first six furlongs to win the one-mile allowance prep for the Gendelman by a length. It was his first victory in four tries on grass.

The 5-year-old Dubacious won last year’s Best of Ohio Endurance going 1 1/4 miles on dirt. Although he has never raced on turf, Dubacious won his maiden on Woodbine’s Polytrack and synthetic form often transfers well to turf. In addition, trainer Jeff Radosevich pulled off a 30-1 upset with the 3-year-old Linda’s Luck – a horse with no proven turf form - in a dead heat with Bucket Beat in the May 29 Green Carpet at Belterra.

Trainer Bob Gorham has the uncoupled entry of Blacktieandtux, third in his turf debut less than two weeks ago, and Bootsonthebeach, a 5-for-14 4-year-old who stretches out from a sprint and tries turf for the first time while making the second start of his form cycle.