Firenze Fire, Free Drop Billy, Enticed to meet in Gotham Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Led by Grade 1 winners Firenze Fire and Free Drop Billy and Grade 2 winner Enticed, a field of at least 10 3-year-olds is expected to be entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.

The Gotham, which offers 85 qualifying points to its top four finishers (50-20-10-5) toward the May 5 Kentucky Derby, will be run as a one-turn mile for the first time since 2005. Firenze Fire is a two-time stakes winner going a one-turn mile, having won the Grade 1 Champagne last fall at Belmont and the ungraded Jerome Stakes over Aqueduct’s main track on Jan. 13.

Firenze Fire is coming off a second-place finish behind Avery Island in the Grade 3 Withers at 1 1/8 miles here on Feb. 3.

On Sunday, Firenze Fire was credited with a half-mile workout in 50.22 seconds, though the time doesn’t tell the whole story about the move.

Firenze Fire broke two lengths behind stablemate Whatstotalkabout and tracked him from the five-eighths pole to the quarter pole in 39.12 seconds. Straightening away in the lane, jockey Manny Franco put Firenze Fire directly behind Whatstotalkabout to take some dirt. At the sixteenth pole, Franco wheeled Firenze Fire to the outside, and he flew home, finishing about two lengths clear at the wire.

But the best part of the work came after the wire as Firenze Fire galloped out another quarter-mile in 24.56 seconds.

“When he takes the dirt, he relaxes,” said Henry Argueta, the longtime assistant to trainer Jason Servis. “If he gets in the clear, he might be rank. This horse likes to work like that. We weren’t looking for a specific time, we just want to maintain the horse.”

Franco, aboard for the victory in the Jerome, will be back aboard Firenze Fire in the Gotham.

Servis will also send out Dial Operator in the Gotham. Dial Operator, a New Jersey-bred son of Dialed In, is 2 for 2, having won a statebred maiden race at Monmouth last summer and an open, first-level allowance at Laurel last month.

Dial Operator also worked on Sunday, though it was quite eventful. As he was about to break off into a jog passing the gap past the wire, Dial Operator spooked from something, unseated jockey Trevor McCarthy, and ran off the track. Fortunately, Servis’s barn is very close to the track, and Dial Operator simply ran back to his barn. After being caught by a stable hand, Dial Operator a short time later returned to the track, where he worked a half-mile in 50.25 seconds.

Argueta said McCarthy told him Dial Operator “saw something move” and made a quick move that caught McCarthy by surprise.

“Good thing he just ran right back to the barn,” Argueta said. “He did a warm-up before he breezed. Unbelievable.”

Dial Operator, like Firenze Fire, also galloped out strong after his work, going five furlongs in 1:02.73 and six furlongs in 1:15.58.

McCarthy will be aboard Dial Operator in the Gotham.

Free Drop Billy, the winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, scratched out of Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth to run in the Gotham, trainer Dale Romans said. Dylan Davis will ride Free Drop Billy, who finished second in the Grade 2 Holy Bull behind Audible.

Romans, via text, said he likely will send a second horse for the Gotham, believed to be Cove Blue, a son of Ghostzapper who has one win from five starts.

Those two will ship to New York from Florida on Wednesday along with Enticed, the winner of last fall’s Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, and Whereshetoldmetogo, who is coming off a win in the American Fabius, a starter-allowance race on Feb. 17 at Gulfstream in which he raced in blinkers for the first time.

Beautiful Shot and Afleet Ascent are expected to ship in Wednesday from Southern California. Beautiful Shot, a son of Trappe Shot, won the Speakeasy Stakes last fall at Santa Anita before finishing third in the Grade 3 Bob Hope at Del Mar on Nov. 11. On Sunday, Beautiful Shot worked six furlongs in 1:12.20 out of the gate at Santa Anita for trainer Keith Desormeaux.

Afleet Ascent, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, is coming off a second in a turf-sprint stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 18.

Nine Route, a winner of three straight New York-bred races for trainer Jeremiah Englehart, and Old Time Revival, beaten a neck in the Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel on Feb. 17, also are expected for the Gotham. Danny California, a recent maiden winner against New York-breds, is possible.

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