Charles Town: Distance a question for Strike the Moon in Appalachian Handicap
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Based on her two local stakes wins and a pair of third-place finishes in graded stakes during 2013, the 6-year-old mare Strike the Moon merits her 8-5 favoritism on the track’s morning line for Tuesday night’s $35,000 Appalachian Handicap at Charles Town.
Given the 1 1/16-mile distance of the race for fillies and mares, however, Strike the Moon might be vulnerable at a short price.
Strike the Moon, based in Maryland with trainer Mike Trombetta, has been most effective racing seven furlongs, the distance of her lone win in nine starts last season in an overnight stakes at Charles Town. She also raced seven furlongs, albeit on Polytrack at Woodbine, when a close third in the Grade 2 Bessarabian and Grade 3 Seaway.
The last time Strike the Moon ran longer than a mile, she finished sixth in the Grade 3 Allaire DuPont Distaff at Pimlico in May 2012. Her only in-the-money finish going 1 1/16 miles came when she missed by a head in the 2011 running of the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks.
The value play might be Kentucky shipper Prize Winner (6-1). She returns to dirt and makes just her second start since July after finishing fourth of 12 at 108-1 in the one-mile Wintergreen Stakes on Turfway Park’s Polytrack on Jan. 4. Trainer Michael Lauer is 5 for 18 (28 percent) with horses back in fewer than 30 days while switching from synthetic to dirt routes.
Candelabra saw her bid for a three-race winning streak foiled when she rallied to just miss in a three-horse win photo as the 6-5 favorite in a second-level optional $25,000 claimer at Penn National on Dec. 28. She won her only previous start at Charles Town going 1 1/16 miles by nearly six lengths last May. Of the six route runners Tim Kreiser has started at Charles Town over the past five years, four have figured in the exacta.
Another Penn National-based mare, the 8-year-old Adelicate Miss, beat out Candelabra for second by a neck Dec. 28 but also just came up short of her third straight win. Her three best dirt races during a four-win campaign in 2013 all came in two-turn races while running for a $12,500 claiming tag.
Peep Eye comes out of that same Dec. 28 one-mile race, in which she was fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Candelabra.