Fleet Beat steps up a class for Monday feature

Fleet Beat, a winner each of the last three times he has raced on a synthetic surface, steps up to a class level where he is unproven for Monday’s $38,000 feature at Presque Isle Downs.

The third-level $62,500 optional-claiming race, which will be contested at 6 1/2 furlongs, drew a field of five older horses and goes as race 2 at 5:50 p.m. Eastern.

All seven of Fleet Beat’s career victories have come on synthetic surfaces, including four wins at Presque Isle, where he came from last of four to score by a length last time out in a second-level $40,000 optional claimer May 15. Last season, he came off a similar victory in June but was a non-threatening fourth when he ran at the same level as Monday’s feature. He is among three horses entered for the optional $62,500 tag.

Sneaking Uponyou won a restricted stakes on dirt at Tampa Bay Downs two starts ago but finished ahead of just one horse in the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Handicap on the Preakness undercard. He returns to Presque Isle, where he has recorded all three of his synthetic surface wins. The last time he won locally, however, was nearly four years ago in August 2010.

Massive Explosion fits well off his Polytrack form last season at Arlington and Woodbine, where he won back-to-back 6 1/2-furlong sprints. He will be making his first start since September. The only horse his trainer, Justin Johns, has started off an extended layoff the past five years scored following an absence of 260 days at Arlington in 2011.

Kelly Rock has been part of the exacta in all three of his previous starts at Presque Isle, but those were all going a mile. Unraced since November, he will be trying a sprint for the first time since finishing fifth in a first-level allowance at Penn National in March 2013.

As a 3-year-old last season, One Buck Roma recorded two wins and two seconds in four starts locally. He was no match against Sneaking Uponyou when they met twice last winter at Tampa Bay.