Gierkink's preview: Big fields throughout program
If you exclude the also-eligibles, the average field size on Friday’s challenging nine-race card is nearly 11 horses. There is rain in the forecast, so the two turf events could be in jeopardy. The temporary rail is in the outermost lane 5.
Trainer Nick Gonzalez, who had two winners on Wednesday night, could win several more races on this program.
Two Brews to Go (7-2) is returning from a three-month layoff in the second. She’s nose-diving from nonwinners of three $40,000/Ontario-sired allowance company to $12,500 claiming in the five-furlong event, off a sketchy work pattern.
Saffron Sky (3-1) is debuting for Gonzalez in the third, an $8,000 maiden dash, off a sub-par showing for $10,000.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: Going back five years, Gonzalez has a 16 percent strike rate with new shooters, with a profitable return on investment of $2.23.
Miss Stone (8-1) is making her third start with Lasix in the fourth, a one-mile maiden special for Ontario-sired females on turf. She went five-wide on the first turn before making an early three-wide bid and then tiring in a Sept. 17 Polytrack route.
The once-promising Spring Likeacobra (20-1) is an outsider in the fifth. Like Saffron Sky, she recently left the barn of leading trainer Mark Casse, and is making her first start for Gonzalez.
Clapham Heights and also-eligible I Got That Memo are linked in an entry listed at 15-1 in the ninth, a $40,000 grass sprint. Clapham Heights is tagged for the first time since his maiden victory, following two consecutive double-digit allowance losses on turf and Polytrack.
Campbell mounts live
Jesse Campbell, who teamed up with Gonzalez to capture the 2013 Queen’s Plate with Midnight Aria, is well-mounted on the card, on horses such as Two Brews to Go and on Green Doctor in the opener, a six-furlong allowance for juvenile fillies.
Green Doctor (5-2) graduated third-time out with ease in a Polytrack sprint, and then ran gamely on the lead before tiring over yielding turf in the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes. She beat two others in a five-furlong work in 1:01 last Saturday, after tracking them around the turn.
Campbell’s other live mounts include I’m Good With It (4-1 in the third); Paulettes Mystique (3-1 in the fourth) and Chella (3-1 in the fifth).
Horse to watch
FLASHY HUMOR
Trainer: Nick Gonzalez
Last race: Oct. 1, 7th
Finish: 1st by 4 1/2
Beyer: 55
He improved dramatically first-time out as a gelding, in his first start for Gonzalez. After tracking the leader on the turn, he took control early in the stretch before drawing away in the $8,000 maiden claimer.