Green Gratto looks to end skid with repeat in Toboggan

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The most accomplished horse in the field could very well be the longest shot on the board in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.

Green Gratto, a Grade 1 winner who has earned more than $1.1 million, will make his 62nd start in the Toboggan, run at seven furlongs. Green Gratto, an 8-year-old New Jersey-bred son of Here’s Zealous, was one of six male sprinters entered in the Toboggan, a field that also includes Grade 1 winner Takaful.

Green Gratto, who won last year’s Toboggan, will be attempting to snap an eight-race losing streak dating to his 54-1 upset in the Grade 1 Carter, beating Unified by a neck, last April. That also was the last time he ran seven furlongs over Aqueduct’s main track.

The running lines for Green Gratto have been relatively ugly since then, though he showed trainer and co-owner Gaston Grant some signs of life in last month’s Gravesend, where he finished fifth, beaten only 3 1/2 lengths by Do Share, on a sloppy track. For his career, Green Gratto is 0 for 11 over a wet track.

“He really did well over that surface, and that’s not his favorite surface,” Grant said. “I’m kind of pleased with that run. That’s why I m giving him another shot in the Toboggan. At seven-eighths, he’ll probably relax a little more.”

Green Gratto seems to do his best running in the cooler weather. In addition to winning last year’s Carter, he finished second in that race in 2015. His five stakes victories include the Grade 3 Fall Highweight and the listed Gravesend in the fall of 2015.

“That seems to be his pattern,” Grant said. “He’s doing pretty good, he’s eating well, he’s training well.”

Green Gratto will be reunited with Chris DeCarlo, who was aboard for the Carter victory.

Takaful, the Grade 1 Vosburgh winner, will have Trevor McCarthy in the irons. Also entered were Great Stuff (Dylan Davis), Life in Shambles (Manny Franco), Summer Revolution (Kendrick Carmouche), and Vulcan’s Forge (Eric Cancel).