Drafted looks to rebound and repeat in Mr. Prospector
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Drafted won the $100,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes as an 8-year-old in 2022 and he might well win the 2023 renewal at age 9.
Eight horses were entered in the six-furlong Mr. Prospector, the featured eighth race on Monday at Monmouth Park. The field top to bottom looks comparable to the one Drafted beat a year ago, and Drafted, even at his advanced racehorse age, looks comparable to the horse he was a year ago.
A gray gelding by Field Commission trained by David Duggan for a partnership, Drafted won four times last season, and while he’s winless from three 2023 starts, his form hasn’t obviously declined. In the Toboggan four months ago, Drafted ran into rampaging Repo Rocks, who won by more than eight lengths, and in the March 4 Tom Fool, Drafted had a tricky trip on a wet track facing stronger opposition than he meets Monday.
Given a freshening, Drafted returned May 13 in the Runhappy Stakes at Belmont, where he was hard held in the early and middle stages while racing along the rail. Switched to the far outside for his stretch run, Drafted turned in the fastest final quarter mile, 23.91 seconds, among the six Runhappy runners while finishing a decent fourth. His performance was encouraging enough, though three weeks separated the Runhappy and the Mr. Prospector when Drafted won both races last year and a 16-day turnaround isn’t ideal. While timing is a concern, Drafted ought to get the fast pace ahead of him that his late-running style requires.
His chief foe could turn out to be the horse who finished one place in front of him in the Runhappy, Stage Left, the only stakes winner for David Jacobson since Jacobson returned from a long absence to resume training last August. Stage Left and Drafted raced alongside one another for much of the Runhappy, but Stage Left was able to maintain more of an inside position than Drafted coming off the turn and into the homestretch, accounting to some extent for the one length he had on Drafted at the finish. Stage Left’s stakes win came April 29 in the King Leatherbury at Laurel Park, a 5 1/2-furlong contest that was rained from turf onto dirt. A 7-year-old himself, Stage Left lacks Drafted’s established class and never has raced over the Monmouth surface.
Beyond those two, the pickings are slim. Hollywood Jet, Feast, Magical Warrior, and Lightening Larry all are pace players, though Feast and Magical Warrior both hail from the barn of trainer Gerald Bennett and are unlikely to compromise one another. Tops the Charts should race in the second flight and at age 4 might have upside, but never has come close to running fast enough to win. Baytown Bear ran decently when third in the Rumson Stakes over the Monmouth main track last summer and theoretically has the right style for the Mr. Prospector race flow, but his three 2023 starts have been poor.
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