Certified Loverboy has been burning money but figures once again

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A beaten favorite in three of his last four starts, Certified Loverboy looms a significant player yet again in a second-level/optional $75,000 claiming race going 1 1/8 miles that serves as the feature on Thursday’s eight-race Aqueduct card.

In his last two tries going 1 1/8 miles on dirt in New York in this condition, Certified Loverboy was a beaten a nose at 9-5 on June 7 and a neck at 4-5 on Aug. 12, both races run over sloppy tracks in Saratoga. He is back at Aqueduct, where he won a $50,000 claiming race going seven furlongs in the mud in April and a first-level allowance by 10 1/2 lengths going 1 3/16 miles over a sloppy track in May.

Five of Certified Loverboy’s last seven dirt starts have come over wet tracks, and there is rain forecast for Thursday as well.

Certified Loverboy is coming out of a third-place finish in a starter allowance at Colonial Downs, which may be better than it looked. Cadet Corps, winner of that race, came back to run a solid third, beaten one length, in a tough race at Delaware Park. Bernin Hot, second in the Colonial race, came back to win a second-level/optional $80,000 claimer at Churchill Downs last Thursday, recording a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure.

Trainer Fernando Abreu believes the key to Certified Loverboy’s success is being on the lead, a position he was not able to reach in his last three dirt starts.

“He’ll run all day, he’s a fighter, he wants to be on the lead,” Abreu said. “When you bring him from the back, he’s not the same horse as when you let him stretch himself. He has a big, long stride.”

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Flavien Prat, who has a win and three seconds on Certified Loverboy, rides him Thursday from post 2.

If Certified Loverboy can’t get the job done on the lead, Abreu will hope that Wynstock, his uncoupled entrymate, can be successful from off the pace. Abreu claimed Wynstock – the 2023 Los Alamitos Futurity winner and the 2024 Los Alamitos Derby winner – for $45,000 when he captured an off-the-turf New York-bred optional claimer in the mud here in June.

At Saratoga, Wynstock finished ninth in the John Morrissey Stakes for statebred sprinters and was last of seven in a high-priced optional-claiming race.

“We went from one extreme to the other,” Abreu said. “Johnny [Velazquez] rode him in the stake, and he said he wanted more distance. I put Joel Rosario on him next time, and he had him way too close and he was not able to finish. I think he needs to sit and make one move.”

Rosario rides Wynstock on Thursday.

Noted may offer some value for trainer Gustavo Rodriguez, who claimed the horse for $50,000 in May out of a winning effort over a wet Aqueduct track. Rodriguez has since raced Noted on turf three times and now returns him to dirt, a surface on which he won the Sapling Stakes in 2023.

“He’s training better than in Saratoga. Why, I don’t know,” Rodriguez said. “He worked beautiful the other day.”

Rudy Rodriguez, who has put a hard-luck Saratoga meet in the rearview mirror, sends out Strapped and Whittington Park. Strapped’s last victory came in this condition going 1 1/4 miles at Aqueduct in May. Whittington Park has recorded five of his seven career wins at Aqueduct.

Mr. Papagiorgio, trained by Rick Dutrow, won his last two starts and comes in off a two-month freshening. Tabeguache returns to dirt after finishing last in the Bernard Baruch on turf.

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