Law Professor back with Atras on favorite track

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following a sale and a last-place finish in a stakes at Oaklawn Park nearly six months ago, Law Professor is starting over in familiar territory Friday in a third-level allowance race at Aqueduct.

Law Professor is your prototypical horse-for-course, having won 4 of 6 starts at Aqueduct. His two losses have come in consecutive runnings of the Woodward Stakes. In 2022 he was second to Life Is Good when the race was still a Grade 1 and in 2023 he finished third behind Zandon in the now Grade 2 Woodward.

Law Professor made those starts for trainer Rob Atras and owners Twin Creeks Racing. Law Professor went through a Fasig-Tipton digital sale in March and was purchased by John Holleman for $230,000. Law Professor ran once for Holleman and trainer Wade Rarik, finishing seventh in the Lake Ouachita Stakes over a wet track at Oaklawn in May.

Law Professor was returned to Atras in early summer and shows eight works leading up to this start at 1 1/8 miles.

“The last two works have been pretty good. We put some big gallops in him, so hopefully we got him tight enough to do it,” Atras said.

Atras had Law Professor nominated to Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Forty Niner Stakes going a mile, but opted for this easier, albeit longer, spot.

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“The distance probably would have been more ideal, a mile off the layoff,” Atras said. “But I just thought this race might not be as challenging for him.”

Kendrick Carmouche, aboard for Law Professor’s allowance win going a mile here in February, has the mount Friday.

Bendoog, trained by Bill Mott, returns to Aqueduct where in April he won a pair of allowance races, one at a mile, the other at 1 1/8 miles, in a 23-day span.

In June, Bendoog was sent off as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Suburban at Saratoga but finished second, beaten a half-length by Crupi. After a sixth-place finish in the Charles Town Classic, Bendoog returned to allowance company at Churchill Downs in September, where he chased the front-running Pipeline all the way around the track and had to settle for second.

“I couldn’t give him any big excuse, he was in the game, he just got outrun on the day,” Mott said.

Jose Lezcano rides Bendoog from post 3.

Tabeguache is winless in seven starts since he won the St. Louis Derby at FanDuel Racing in August 2023. Four of those defeats have come in races with the same conditions and at the same distance he encounters Friday. Tabeguache has run his better races on or close to the lead, a position he could attain Friday under Joel Rosario.

Classic Catch was beaten a nose in a similar spot as this in June at Churchill. He has not run since a seventh-place finish on July 11 at Saratoga. Instant Coffee has been drubbed in his last three starts.

This allowance goes as the second race on a nine-race card that begins at 12:40 p.m.

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