Double carryover kicks off racing week
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The last big week of the New York racing season begins the same way as the last two weeks, with a multiple-day carryover in the pick six. After going unhit for the third straight weekend, there is a double carryover of $91,575 beginning with race 4 at 1:47 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.
The new wrinkle is a looming coastal storm that threatens to wreak havoc with holiday travel plans, not to mention eight scheduled turf races over the next three racing days, including two in Wednesday’s pick six.
Those races, a maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies (race 5) and an optional claimer for New York-bred fillies and mares (race 7), drew overflow fields. They will have very different looks depending on whether they stay as two-turn races on grass or become one-turn races out of the main-track chute.
The four scheduled dirt races in the pick six are topped by race 8, a 6 1/2-furlong optional claimer with a purse of $69,000. The field of eight fillies and mares is headed by the entry of Expression and Make the Moment for owner-trainer Charlie Baker.
Expression has notched all six of her career victories at Aqueduct, and she nearly picked up another when second by a diminishing neck during opening week.
The third- through sixth-place finishers from that race, including beaten favorite Voodoo Tales, are back for another shot, along with Cape Cod Carol and Frivolity, who make their second starts back from layoffs.
Frivolity dueled to the stretch while making her first start in six months for David Jacobson and looks like Expression’s primary threat.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Frivolity. Trainer David Jacobson is 31-3-4-8 with a $0.54 ROI over the past two years in dirt sprints when increasing the claiming price by 50 percent or more. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Oddly enough, two of the more manageable races in terms of pick six coverage are the maiden claimers that bookend the sequence. Miss Macarena was 45-1 and 40-1 in her first two starts, but she will be a logical choice in race 4, based on a fourth 2 1/2 weeks ago that towers over the rest. Among a dozen cheap maidens in the finale, the winner is very likely among the trio of Inca Saint, Robert Noble, and Tapin Mojo.
KEY CONTENDERS
Expression (Last 3 Beyers: 78-80-80)
◗ She was claimed from a maiden win as a second-time starter Jan. 11, 2012, and has since earned $282,644 in 22 starts for Charlie Baker.
Frivolity (Last 3 Beyers: 78-35-86)
◗ With blinkers added, she made the early lead for the first time when returned from a six-month layoff Nov. 9.
◗ She beat eventual graded stakes winner Merry Meadow while winning a maiden sprint at Aqueduct’s 2012 fall meet.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Voodoo Tales. Trainer Nicholas Esler is 8-3-1-1 with a $4.35 ROI over the past year in dirt sprints in the third start following a layoff. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Big graded stakes week
The last six graded stakes of the season, collectively worth at least $2.3 million, will be run this week, beginning with the Grade 3, $300,000 Fall Highweight Handicap on Thanksgiving Day. David Jacobson has the top-weighted entry of Strapping Groom (134 pounds) and Salutos Amigos (133) in the Fall Highweight.
Along with River Rocks (131), Strapping Groom, who has been sidelined since a fifth in the Carter Handicap in April, also is entered in Wednesday’s $200,000 Fabulous Strike at Penn National.
“We’ve had some trouble with his feet, quarter cracks, but we’ve got him good now,” said Jacobson.
First post Thanksgiving Day is 11:25 a.m.
A dozen fillies and mares entered the Grade 3, $300,000 Go for Wand Handicap, the ninth of 10 races on a Black Friday program that starts at noon. The New York-breds Princess Violet and Willet may vie for favoritism in the one-mile race that projects to have a sharp pace contested by Classic Point and Snowbell.