Happy Medium all revved up for rescheduled Toboggan Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The one-week postponement of the Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan Stakes didn’t seem to bother trainer Michelle Nevin too much. However, her 4-year-old gelding Happy Medium has seemed to have gotten a bit antsy awaiting his stakes debut Saturday at Aqueduct.

“He’s full of it,” Nevin said Thursday morning outside her barn. “He’s ready to do something.”

Happy Medium should get the opportunity to do something Saturday when the Toboggan becomes the first graded stakes to be run in New York in 2022. The seven-furlong race was originally scheduled for Jan. 29, but that card was canceled due to a snowstorm that also knocked out racing on Jan. 30.

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There were seven horses entered originally for the Toboggan, but only five have returned. Chateau, who was expected to scratch last week anyway, was not even re-entered as his connections await the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool on March 5. Penguin Power did not enter back because he ran in last Saturday’s Fire Plug Stakes at Laurel Park.

When the race was originally drawn, Happy Medium drew post 2. When the race was redrawn Wednesday, Happy Medium drew the outside post.

“I like the idea of him being on the outside,” said Nevin, adding that post means jockey Manny Franco “will be able to dictate from there what he wants to do.”

Happy Medium, a 4-year-old gelding by Runhappy owned by Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stable, brings a three-race winning streak into the Toboggan. He has been on or near the lead from the start in all three victories, including a seven-length romp over Wudda U Think Now, who came back to win a second-level allowance by 10 1/2 lengths with a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. Happy Medium earned a 104 the day he beat Wudda U Think Now and seems to have had ample time to recover.

Happy Medium’s biggest rival would appear to be Hopeful Treasure, who won the Grade 3 Fall Highweight here Nov. 28. Trainer Michael Catalano said Hopeful Treasure took longer than expected to bounce back from that effort, forcing him to miss the Blitzen Stakes at Parx Racing in late December.

Though Hopeful Treasure shows only two workouts in the 69 days since the Fall Highweight, Catalano said prior to last week that Hopeful Treasure was ready to go.

Hopeful Treasure is 0 for 2 at seven furlongs, but one of those tries came in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens at Saratoga in 2020.

Hopeful Treasure will break from post 4 under Trevor McCarthy.

Trainer Juan Vazquez, who is 11 for 27 this winter at Aqueduct, scratched Repo Rocks out of an allowance here Thursday to run in the Toboggan. He won an allowance race here Dec. 10.

Drafted, third in the Gravesend on Dec. 19, will now have the services of Jose Ortiz as Dylan Davis, his named rider a week ago, is in Florida. War Tocsin completes the field.

With only five horses, the Toboggan is carded as the third race on a card that begins at 12:50 p.m.