Litfin's preview: Jacobson gets off to fast start

Fast start for Jacobson

After winning 16 races at Saratoga en route to a record-setting 164 wins on the New York circuit last year, David Jacobson only managed a record of 9-14-9 from 69 starters at the Spa this summer.

However, he came out firing with his first two starters on Friday, both in $20,000 claiming sprints on the main track, as Back Forty ($11.80) took the fall meet opener from off the pace with apprentice Andre Worrie, and Glickman ($6.90) posted a front-running win in race 5.

Both winners were 6-year-old geldings making their first starts following a claim by Jacobson at Saratoga.

Six in Yankee Affair

The featured $100,000 Yankee Affair Stakes is scheduled for 1 ½ miles on the Widener turf, and thankfully the weather forecast had improved somewhat as of late Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, the soothsayers at weather.com had called for an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms developing through Saturday; 24 hours later, odds had been reduced to just a 30 percent chance of “isolated thunderstorms.”

Hopefully, they are isolated somewhere else, as only six long-distance types entered the Yankee Affair, and three of those would be fish out of water in the event of a switch to the main track, in which case the distance would be 1 1/8 miles.

$300,000 guaranteed late pick four

As will be the case on most Saturdays at the fall meet, the late pick four offers a $300,000 guaranteed pool.

Saturday’s sequence covers races 7 through 10, beginning with a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds scheduled for one mile on the Widener turf.

Post time for race 7 is scheduled for 4:13 p.m. Eastern.

Four of the six entered for turf are first-time starters, so bettors will want to await a look at tote action and pre-race appearances to gain some insight about the relative merits of Animal Kracker (Tom Bush), Command Control (Shug McGaughey), St. Louie (Alan Goldberg, and Supa (Bill Mott).

The homebred Command Control has some pedigree power, as his dam, Meghan’s Joy, has already produced turf stakes winners Quiet Harbor and Seal Cove, as well as graded stakes-placed Minister’s Joy.

$25,964 pick six carryover

By the time Golden Ticket ($7.30) rallied from last to win Friday’s $100,000 Left Bank Stakes, there were no live pick six tickets going into the last race, so there will be a carryover of $25,964 into Saturday.

With a 10-race card, the pick six begins with race 5 at 3:09 p.m.