Litfin's preview: Empire Showcase card starts early
Early start on Empire Showcase Day
With the days getting ever shorter, first post has been moved up to 12:20 p.m. Eastern for Saturday’s Empire Showcase Day card, where all 11 races are exclusively for New York-breds, including eight stakes collectively worth $1.75 million.
The pick six is book-ended by maiden turf races, beginning with race 6 at 3:02 p.m.
An all-stakes early pick four on races 2 through 5 consists of the Sleepy Hollow, Maid of the Mist, Mohawk, and Iroquois. The first three legs of the $300,000 guaranteed late pick four are the Empire Classic (8th), Ticonderoga (9th) and Hudson (10th), with a six-furlong maiden turf dash at the end.
The Empire Distaff (7th) is not part of either pick four.
Four veterans look to win stakes again
Four runners on the card look to win their respective stakes for the second time.
King Kreesa and Lubash, the one-two finishers in last year’s Mohawk, are the principal contenders again. King Kreesa removes a bar shoe for his third start of the season. This will be the fourth try in the race for Lubash, who was also second in 2011, and fourth in 2012.
This is the third straight Iroquois appearance for Willet, who recorded her initial 99 Beyer Figure top winning the 2012 renewal in the mud. She was clearly second best last year behind Cluster of Stars, who retired unbeaten.
Saratoga Snacks runs in his third Empire Classic, after finishing second behind favored Lunar Tale as the second choice in 2012, and prevailing as the favorite in 2013.
Effie Trinket, who was up to win the 2013 Ticonderoga in a photo, looks for her first victory of the season in this year’s edition.
Favorites ‘perfect 10’ during two-day span
Christmas came early for chalk players, who cashed in on 10 consecutive winning favorites from race 7 Thursday through race 7 Friday.
After a late pick three on Thursday comprised of Royal Currier ($4.50), Sister Margaret ($3.90) and The Lewis Dinner ($3.70), plenty of low-budget pick five tickets got through a sequence of Havermeyer Street ($5.10), Brendan G ($4.30), Night Prowler ($4.60), Invasion Point ($4.60), and Canal Six ($4.10). The streak continued with Street Game ($4.90) and Double the Energy ($5.80), before finally coming to an end in race 8 when Madaket Millie went down to defeat at 4-5.
Horse to watch
R Y SQUADRON
Trainer: Chad Brown
Last race: Oct. 16, 9th
Finish: 2nd by 5 1/2
Beyer: 63
Had her debut rained off the turf to a muddy main track, and went well chasing odds-on The Lewis Dinner throughout, and finishing well clear of the remainder.