Distance, class drop may help Wimplestiltskin

Wimplestiltskin and Move to Strike will both try to turn back the calendar to early spring when they run in the $50,000 Sonny Hine, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-olds at Pimlico.

After unsuccessfully chasing such top-caliber 3-year-olds as Pollard's Vision, Lion Heart, and Love of Money in graded stakes contested around two turns, Wimplestiltskin will cut back to a sprint for the first time since May. In his best races, which came in Southern California, Wimplestiltskin was up close or in front at the six-furlong call in both the Grade 2 Laz Barrera and the San Pedro.

He is cross-entered in Saturday's Bergen County, a five-furlong turf sprint at The Meadowlands.

Move to Strike was sharp in April, when he won back-to-back starts at Pimlico, including a restricted stakes. But in three subsequent starts, Move to Strike was beaten a collective 58 1/2 lengths. Some time off may have helped, because Move to Strike shows a pair of bullet five-furlong works at Bowie since mid-September.

On Thin Ice, the track's 5-2 morning line favorite and winner of 4 of 6 lifetime, raced poorly last time out in the Gallant Bob at Philadelphia Park but may have been less than 100 percent physically.

"He had trained absolutely great heading into the Gallant Bob, but he came to the paddock and he wasn't the same horse," trainer John Servis said. "He just didn't run a jump and the vet told me maybe the Lasix was getting him colicky."