Florida shipper Tatweej won't be cold on the toteboard

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher hopes Tatweej handles the chill of a New York winter as well as he did the heat of a South Florida summer when he runs the 5-year-old in a multi-conditioned allowance going a mile Thursday at Aqueduct.

With the calendar flipped to February, first post at Aqueduct is now 1:20 p.m. for eight-race cards (such as Thursday) and 1 p.m. for nine-race cards. Starting Feb. 18, first post will simply be 1:20 p.m.

Tatweej, a product of Grade 1 winners Tapit and Tiz Miz Sue, reeled off three straight wins at Gulfstream Park from July 25 through Sept. 25. That earned him a shot in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday on Dec. 12 at Gulfstream, where Tatweej chased a strong pace but was done by the quarter pole and finished sixth of seven, 10 1/2 lengths behind Tax.

“Tax ran a huge race that day, he tried to chase, and tired from those early efforts,” Pletcher said Sunday from Florida. “Just trying to regroup and find a spot. This race came up. We were shipping some other horses up. This worked out from a timing standpoint.”

Tatweej may not have been beating the toughest competition in South Florida during the summer, but he won all three starts convincingly, improving his speed figures slightly each time. All three of his wins were at the same one-turn mile configuration of Thursday’s race.

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“He did what’s hard to do – go through conditions that quickly in consecutive races,” Pletcher said. “The competition at that time of year probably wasn’t as stern as what he met in the Harlan’s Holiday. He’ll appreciate a little bit of class relief, and he does appreciate the one-turn mile.”

Dylan Davis will ride Tatweej from post 4.

Thursday’s feature, which goes as the fifth, includes the return to the races of seven-time stakes winner Sunny Ridge. The 8-year-old New Jersey-bred gelded son of Holy Bull cranked out $1.4 million for trainer Jason Servis, who last March was banned from the sport after being indicted for administering illegal medication to his horses.

Sunny Ridge hasn’t run since finishing third, beaten a head by Mind Control, in the Grade 3 Toboggan 54 weeks ago at Aqueduct. Sunny Ridge is now with trainer John Kimmel.

“He’s been training pretty well. We have a decent bottom into him; he has seven or eight works of at least a half-mile,” Kimmel said. “The horse has been off a year, you’d think he probably needs a race.”

Manny Franco rides Sunny Ridge from the outside post in the five-horse field.

Trainer John Servis ships in Dreams Untold, a speedy 5-year-old gelding who comes off a career-best race winning a Pennsylvania-bred allowance on Jan. 5 at Parx Racing. At times, he has been his own worst enemy leaving the gate.

Kendrick Carmouche has the call from the rail.

Rock on Luke and Mad Munnys add potential pace to the field.

◗ The entire Empire 6 pool will continue to be distributed daily through February.