Folk Singer seeks continued turf success in allowance

Nine months ago, Folk Singer made his first start off a $25,000 claim in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park. Sent off at 88-1, he gave his few backers a brief thrill by opening up a four-length lead in the first half-mile before fading badly in the 1 3/8-mile marathon.

On Tuesday at Atlantic City Race Course, the 5-year-old Folk Singer makes his first start off a $20,000 claim. Instead of a stakes, however, he is more realistically spotted in a starter allowance restricted to horses who have run for $16,000 or less the past two seasons and have not won a race within the past six months.

The mile-and-40-yard race goes as the last of six turf races at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Folk Singer, 5 for 14 lifetime on turf, is eligible for Tuesday’s race by virtue of his win for a $16,000 claiming tag in February 2013 at Tampa Bay Downs. His last win came a month before the eligibility cut-off date in a six-furlong sprint last September at Belmont.

Trainer Bruce Alexander claimed Folk Singer out of a fourth-place finish in a dirt route in January at Aqueduct.

Folk Singer’s 11 opponents include Silent Appeal, a two-time winner on turf last season; Incisive Strike, who has five lifetime wins on grass and was beaten only a length in a restricted stakes last fall; and Livingston Street, who has been part of the exacta in 18 of 51 turf starts, including three good performances in $16,000 starter allowances during the summer of 2012 at Parx Racing.

Silent Appeal will be making his first start since December for Maryland-based trainer Claudio Gonzalez. His most recent victory came for $12,500 tag last September at Monmouth Park.

Incisive Strike has been idle since November. Of the 11 starts he made in 2013, Incisive Strike ran for a claiming price only once. He won a first-level allowance last summer at Parx and was a close fourth in the Alphabet Soup Handicap for Pennsylvania-breds.

The 8-year-old Livingston Street takes a distinct class drop from a $20,000 second-level optional claimer two weeks ago at Pimlico. His most recent grass win came going 1 1/2 miles in a $25,000 first-level optional claimer at Gulfstream Park in February 2013. The last time he ran in a $16,000 starter, Livingston Street won by daylight in September 2012.