Good Bye Greg helps close out meet

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Good Bye Greg got a late start this year to his 7-year-old campaign, but he is getting in a plenty of late-summer racing and will be favored to win the featured third race Saturday as Arlington says good-bye to another season.

Good Bye Greg has found more Arlington success throughout his career than any horse stabled at the suburban Chicago venue, and starts for what have become the perennial leading connections at Arlington – owner Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope LLC, trainer Larry Rivelli, and jockey Jose Valdivia Jr.

Rivelli enters the final three days of this meet with 71 wins, far and away the most among local trainers. Valdivia isn’t approaching the remarkable 141 wins he hit during the 2017 Arlington season, but his 104 entering closing week will easily make him leading rider here for the fourth straight season.

As for Good Bye Greg, he has been described by Rivelli as having a host of physical issues, but one wouldn’t know it from his form this season. Good Bye Greg made his first start of the year on July 21, raced again Aug. 12, and already has run twice this month, on Sept. 2 and Sept. 7. Good Bye Greg, a winner in 12 of his 19 starts, was handed a rare loss on Aug. 12 when he was beaten by the sharp Bushrod, but his other three races this summer have produced short-priced victories. He handled the five-day turnaround earlier this month with no problem, and in his 2018 debut won his first turf race.

That’s a key fact since the closing-day feature, open to $50,000 claimers or second-level allowance horses, is carded at 5 ½ furlongs on grass and seems likely to stay on turf. Good Bye Greg has the rail and figures to take pressure, and maybe it is asking too much of the warrior to turn in a third top race in a month. Jockamo’s Song, who is more proven on turf and can stick with Good Bye Greg on the front end, is the pick to win.

No BC for Hotshot Anna

Hugh Robertson had just bought a Flat Out yearling for $7,000 at the Keeneland September sale when he was reached by phone Thursday morning. Even winning the $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Masters on Monday night with Hotshot Anna, a filly he bought for $20,000 at the Keeneland sale in 2015, won’t change Robertson’s bargain-hunting ways.

And while Hotshot Anna has emerged as North America’s best filly-and-mare sprinter over synthetic surfaces (she got a 99 Beyer Speed Figure at Presque Isle after earning a 100 in the Chicago Handicap here earlier this summer), Robertson, who fully owns Hotshot Anna in addition to training her, has no designs on a switch to dirt for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

“I’ll turn her out for awhile now while there’s still grass to eat,” Robertson said. “I’ll probably pick her up when I go down to Fair Grounds.”

Hotshot Anna has been racing steadily since last December and is due for a break, Robertson said.

“She’s had a long campaign,” he said. “This race might have taken a little bit more out of her than the others. And how much money can one man make?”