El Areeb to stretch speed in Jerome

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After flashy wins sprinting in his last two starts, El Areeb will get his first opportunity to stretch out around two turns in Monday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.

El Areeb, a son of Exchange Rate, completed preparations for the Jerome on Wednesday morning by working six furlongs in 1:15 at Laurel Park, where trainer Cal Lynch is based.

“The further, the better the way he’s training,” Lynch said. “We always thought he wanted to go longer.”

The Jerome is run at a mile and 70 yards.

El Areeb, a $340,000 purchase as a 2-year-old in training in March, finished fourth at Parx in June in his debut. Lynch said the horse came out of the race with bucked shins.

On Sept. 30, El Areeb had the outside post in a 12-horse field in a 5 1/2-furlong, off-the-turf maiden race at Laurel and finished second after breaking slowly. El Areeb came back 15 days later to win a six-furlong maiden race by 8 3/4 lengths at Laurel, and then five weeks later, on Nov. 19, he won the James F. Lewis III Stakes by 5 1/4 lengths there. His final time of 1:09.96 in the Lewis was faster than the time recorded by Ivan Fallunovalot in winning the De Francis Dash later on the card.

Trevor McCarthy has ridden El Areeb in all four of his races.

Though both of his wins came in front-running fashion, Lynch doesn’t think the horse needs the lead to be successful.

“Trevor sent him to the lead because he could,” Lynch said. “He’s huge. He’s just kind of figuring it out.”

El Areeb is owned by Mohammed Al-Gadhi’s M M G Stables, which also owns Undulated, who was nominated to Sunday’s $100,000 Lost in the Fog Stakes here but is expected to run in Saturday’s Marylander Stakes at Laurel instead.

Lynch said El Areeb will van to New York on Sunday. Others expected to run in the Jerome are Takaful, True Timber, Win With Pride, You’re to Blame, Everybodyluvsrudy, and The Walk.

The top four finishers from the Jerome earn qualifying points (10-4-2-1) to the Kentucky Derby.