Go Max favored to get elusive second win

Trainer Joan Petrowski can count on Go Max showing up with another solid performance at Northlands Park on Wednesday evening. After all, there really isn’t a poor effort in his 13-race career.

What she can’t be sure of is whether it will be good enough to win the six-furlong, first-level allowance race that headlines the first midweek card of the meet. Post time for the first of seven races is 6:30 p.m. Mountain, with the $17,600 feature carded as race 2.

Go Max is the deserving 9-5 morning-line favorite. He is coming off a second-place finish in a $25,000 optional-claiming race May 9 and easily owns the best last-race Beyer Speed Figure. The problem with accepting a short price on the 4-year-old Kentucky-bred colt is that he has been stuck at this level since he won his debut as a 2-year-old in 2013.

Nonetheless, for the most part, he has been running in stakes races, and his worst finish in eight starts in added-money events is a fourth in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby (though he was disqualified from third and placed fifth in the 2013 Birdcatcher Stakes). The only other time he finished out of the top three was in his initial start this year in a first-level allowance at Turf Paradise.

Leading rider Rico Walcott retains the mount.

KEY CONTENDERS

Go Max (Last 3 Beyers: 69-59-78)

◗ He figures to get a nice trip from a stalking position and could be sitting on a peak performance in the third start of his current form cycle.

Real Gusto (Last 2 Beyers: 58-56)

◗ Trained by Robert MacDonald, Real Gusto is a bit of a mystery, with just two starts spread pretty far apart.

Both were solid efforts, however. He lost by a head when he debuted in a maiden special weight race as a 2-year-old at Canterbury Park in August 2013, and he won his only start at Northlands in a maiden special weight race in May 2014.

◗ He obviously can fire fresh, and according to DRF Formulator, over the past five years, MacDonald is 1 for 2 with horses coming off a layoff of a year or more.

Aztec Key (Last 3 Beyers: 52-46-50)

◗ The lone 3-year-old in the six-horse field does his best running late, and there should be speed coming back to him. Trained by Craig Smith, he was right there in all three of his starts as a juvenile and is coming off a third-place finish in the $51,000 Canadian Juvenile on Oct. 25.

Bear’s Reality (Last 3 Beyers: 45-50-64)

◗ He has speed, drew the rail, and figures to move forward in his second start this year for trainer Tim Rycroft.

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