Friday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Meraviglioso capable of better turning back

Aqueduct | Race 4 | Post Time 2:51 p.m. (ET)

Midtown Rose (#2) could go favored in this $16k claimer off her victory for a slightly lesser claiming tag last time. She clearly relished the sloppy surface on that occasion, making a bold run through the pack to win going away at the end. However, the race didn’t come back particularly fast, and she’s meeting a much stronger group as she moves up off that win. Cupids Girl (#4) is another who may take money coming out of a recent victory, but she achieved her win against conditioned claiming foes, and this is a significant step up in class to open company. I’m more interested in horses who have recently competed at this level or are dropping.

The actual horse to beat might be Hydra (#5). It was interesting that Rudy Rodriguez claimed her back for $20k two back, since he had some success with this mare last year, sending her out to win a $40k claimer at Saratoga last summer. She obviously didn’t perform well off the claim last time, but she was racing wide against a very strong rail bias on Jan. 19. That performance isn’t nearly as poor as it seems, and I’m expecting her to bounce back with a better effort this time.

Conversely, Sweet as Sugar (#3) was taking advantage of the rail bias when she beat Hydra on Jan. 19. However, her form had been heading in the right direction prior to that, so it’s possible the effort was not a total fluke. Last time, the trip just didn’t work out for her. She tried to rush up from the inside post and got shut off and shuffled out of position down the backstretch. She’s clearly better than that, and should be able to make better use of her early speed in this spot.

My top pick is Meraviglioso (#7). I thought this mare was a little interesting on the stretch-out last time, but that was an experiment that simply failed. She’s just a horse who wants to go shorter and now she’s turning back to an appropriate sprint distance. She ran deceptively well two back when hanging on for fourth after contesting the pace at this level. The rail was not the place to be on Jan. 11 and she spent much of her trip racing inside. We have seen winner I’m Buzzy come out of that race to win twice more, and others have confirmed that 86 TimeformUS Speed Figure. It’s also interesting that she’s switched barns since then, now going out for James Ferraro. She was in Ferraro’s barn last winter and spring, and ran some of the best races of her career for him. I like that she’s drawn outside this time and I think she’s capable of better than we have seen in the last few outings.