Ferraros have field surrounded in Finger Lakes feature

“Go with Ferraro’s horse” sounds like succinct advice. But if you’re talking about Tuesday’s feature at Finger Lakes, four of the eight horses entered in a third-level allowance at six furlongs for older New York-breds are trained by Michael Ferraro and his son, Mike.

Fortunately for handicappers, their choices if they prefer a Ferraro-trained horse are limited to a pair of coupled entries, led by Michael’s morning-line 8-5 favorites, Baime and Bold Deed.

The 4-year-old Baime, 5 for 9 lifetime, will be difficult to beat if he runs back to the career-best 92 Beyer Speed Figure he recorded June 17 while easily winning his first start since November. The question, however, is whether he can duplicate that performance.

Over the past five years, according to DRF’s Formulator, Ferraro runners making their second start off a layoff in an allowance sprint following a win in which they recorded a Beyer top are only 1 for 8. Three of the losses occurred with horses sent off at 3-5 or lower.

Baime’s stablemate, Bold Deed, cuts back to six furlongs, where he is winless in three tries, following a pair of routes. So, this might be a good spot to try to beat the logical favorite.

Mike Ferraro will send out a pair of horses he owns in 11-time winner Cayo Hueso and the 5-year-old Rock Star Charlie, who returns to his home track following an unsuccessful one-race experiment on the Tapeta synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs.

Cayo Hueso, reclaimed by Mike Ferraro for $6,500 in April, faces statebreds for the first time since clearing his second allowance condition exactly one year ago. He will need to run significantly faster than the 71 Beyer he earned while defeating $10,000 claimers in early May to beat Baime, however.

Rock Star Charlie was second to runaway winner Say Mister Sandman at the same level as Tuesday’s race two starts ago. Ferraro is 3 for 27 (11 percent) with horses going from synthetic to dirt.

Those looking beyond the Ferraro runners might land on Cay to Pomeroy, who has been no worse than second in his last three outings. In his first local race for perennial leading trainer Chris Englehart, Cay to Pomeroy easily defeated eight rivals in a second-level allowance going 5 1/2 furlongs in May.

The field also includes Il Vanabondo, who rallied to get up by a nose in a second-level allowance and subsequently worked a bullet half-mile June 30.