Fall Highweight offers better conditions for Giant Mischief

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A better post position and a smaller field are two of the reasons trainer Brad Cox has chosen to run Giant Mischief in Friday’s $150,000 Fall Highweight Stakes at Aqueduct rather than Thursday’s $225,000 Thanksgiving Classic at Fair Grounds.

In the six-furlong Fall Highweight, Giant Mischief will break from the outside post in what was drawn as a nine-horse field but is likely to lose at least one horse as Witty was scheduled to run in a stakes at Parx on Wednesday. At Fair Grounds, Giant Mischief drew the rail in a field of 11.

“Post position has a lot to do with it, shipping is about the same,” said Cox, who had Giant Mischief based at Churchill Downs before vanning to New York.

Giant Mischief, a son of Into Mischief, has only run once this year, a front-running victory in a third-level allowance at Keeneland on Oct. 12. Kavod and Cyclone Mischief, the second- and fourth-place finishers from that race, came back to run one-two, separated by a neck, in a Nov. 17 allowance at Churchill.

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Giant Mischief was given time off to recover from a late December 2023 van ride to and from California, where he finished third in the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita. As he was preparing for a return start in September, Giant Mischief got sick, Cox said.

Though Giant Mischief won that Keeneland allowance on the front end under Tyler Gaffalione, he has won sprinting from off the pace.

“I don’t think he’s a horse that has to be on the lead. Tyler did a good job taking control of the race where there was no speed,” Cox said. “He’s totally capable of sitting off horses and coming with a run down the lane.”

The Fall Highweight is no longer a handicap and is run under allowance conditions. Since he has not won a stakes race, Giant Mischief gets in with 128 pounds, five fewer than Super Chow, Runninsonofagun, and Baby Yoda.

Cox also runs Top Gunner, a horse he claimed for $62,500 in August and who won the Parx Sprint in September. He didn’t have a great start and may have bounced when he finished fifth in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler at Aqueduct on Oct. 26.

Runninsonofagun was elevated from second to first in the Bold Ruler after he was beaten a nose by My Buddy B, who came out and bumped Runninsonofagun in deep stretch. That was the first win for Runninsonofagun since he won the Bold Ruler in 2022. In his next race, he was beaten a neck by Greeley and Ben in the Fall Highweight.

The 98 Beyer Speed Figure Runninsonofagun earned in this year’s Bold Ruler equaled a career best initially achieved in the 2022 Fall Highweight. Runninsonofagun missed a year of racing due to an ankle chip and other nagging issues.

“It took him a couple of races to get his act together,” trainer John Toscano Jr. said. “At least now we got him back to him running his old numbers.”

The likelihood of rain Thursday could leave the track wet on Friday. That would be good news for Super Chow, who won the Grade 3 Toboggan in the mud in January and the Grade 3 Tom Fool in the slop in March, both at Aqueduct. After running third to Post Time in the Grade 2 Carter here over a fast track in April, Super Chow won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint in the mud at Pimlico.

Dean Delivers also is proficient over a wet surface. He had a four-race win streak snapped when third in the Grade 3 Vosburgh going seven furlongs in the slop here on Sept.28. He is 3 for 5 overall on wet tracks.

Trainer Ned Allard said Dean Delivers prefers six furlongs.

Baby Yoda, who won the Grade 2 True North in Saratoga in the summer, Downtownchalybrown, and Twenty Four Mamba complete the field.

The Fall Highweight goes as race 7 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:10 p.m.

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