Leave the Light On returns Saturday in optional claimer

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Leave the Light On won the Grade 2 Remsen in 2014, and he will make his first start since in a second-level optional-claiming race Saturday at Aqueduct.

The race is at a mile and 70 yards and is limited to 10 starters, though 11 were entered. Leave the Light On drew the rail.

Trainer Chad Brown said Leave the Light On initially was off due to an injury for which he “needed extended recovery time.”

The horse then suffered a few setbacks while trying to make it back earlier this year. He shows 11 workouts beginning Sept. 22 through Dec. 5.

“He’s been ready to run for three weeks now,” said Brown, who had entered him in a one-turn race on Cigar Mile Day that didn’t fill. “Ideally, I wouldn’t want to bring him back in a two-turn race, but the horse is training very well.”

Leave the Light On, a son of Horse Greeley, meets a slew of hardened older horses, including a pair from the Kiaran McLaughlin barn. Farhaan makes his first start over the inner track since he won the Stymie here in 2014. He has raced only three times this year, including a fourth-place finish at this level at Belmont on Halloween. North Slope, who won the Evening Attire Stakes over this strip in February, is coming off a sixth-place finish in the slop in a similar spot to this at Belmont in October.

Dance Champion, trained by Christophe Clement, won going seven furlongs at Keeneland in April, and makes his first start since then.

Integrity, going first off the Danny Gargan claim, and Our Caravan, going first off the Rudy Rodriguez claim, are other contenders in this spot.