Greeley and Ben brings consistency to Gravesend

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Thirty-nine starts. Twenty-three wins. Fifteen tracks.

Greeley and Ben is a horseplayer’s and racing secretary’s dream. Friday, the 8-year-old gelding looks to put the cap on another stellar campaign when he runs in the $135,000 Gravesend Stakes going six furlongs at Aqueduct.

From a Beyer Speed Figure perspective, Greeley and Ben is coming off the fastest race of his career, when he won the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap here by a neck on Nov. 26, earning a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure. He has won three of his last five starts, including a $40,000 claimer at Saratoga from which he was taken by trainer Jeffrey Englehart for owner Darryl Abramowitz. Englehart was serving a suspension when the Fall Highweight was run so the trainer of record that day was his assistant Faith Wilson.

Noteworthy in that Fall Highweight triumph was that Greeley and Ben accomplished it without the benefit of the anti-bleeding medication Lasix, on which he had run in all but one of his 38 previous starts. Englehart said nothing he’s seen from Greeley and Ben would concern him from the lack of Lasix.

Englehart also doesn’t fear Greeley and Ben will regress from his lifetime-best figure.

“There’s nothing that he’s shown in his training that would indicate any of that,” Englehart said. “Sometimes you don’t know until the eighth pole, but he’s been training very well. We’re excited for the race.”

Greeley and Ben, the co-highweight at 126 pounds, breaks from post 10 under Manny Franco.

Morello won his first three races including, in March, the Grade 3 Gotham. He has been hampered by poor starts in his last three races including the Grade 2 Kelso, where he finished fifth. He did overcome a slow start to beat Greeley and Ben by 1 3/4 lengths in an allowance at Laurel Park on Oct. 8.

“We hope he breaks well, gets away from there and gets to run his race,” said Toby Sheets, Belmont Park-based assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “He’s been doing well.”

Morello, who breaks from post 7, is reunited with Jose Lezcano, aboard for those first three victories.

Drafted, who also carries 126, has a versatile running style that should serve him well in a race that appears to have ample speed.

Though the Gravesend drew a field of 12, there are expected to be scratches. Due to poor track conditions, Parx hasn’t been able to have training or racing for at least four days. Repo Rocks and Twisted Ride, the one-two finishers from a stakes at Parx on Nov. 23, will scratch according to their trainers. They will likely run in the rescheduled Blitzen Stakes at Parx on Jan. 4.

Butch Reid, also based at Parx, on Wednesday seemed to be leaning toward sending Smooth B while scratching Beren. Smooth B is coming off an allowance win at Parx on Nov. 8.

Three Two Zone returns from a four-month layoff for Ray Handal while Bezos wheels back in 13 days after getting beat a nose in an allowance for trainer Chandrabat Goberdhan. Synthesis and Amundson, one-two finishers in a Dec. 9 allowance, and Little Vic, winner of the City of Laurel Stakes last, complete the field.