Litfin's review: Quick times running on hard track

Crazy-quick track

The main track played about as fast as you will ever see through the Big Apple Showcase Day card, and the turf courses are firming up as well.

The dirt has been like a paved highway for more than a week now, and the fields got an added turbo-boost from a tailwind as they went around the turn Saturday.

As a result, $20,000 New York-bred claimers went 44.84 seconds and 1:09.18 in the opener. The 3-year-old filly Isabelle (race 3, $7.00) cut a half of 44.75 and kept right on going in the Bouwerie, and Captain Serious (race 5, $4.80) won the seven-furlong Mike Lee in the stakes-record time of 1:20.99 for Mike Hushion, erasing Amberjack’s mark of 1:21.64 for the same trainer last year.

Captain Serious was among four winners for Jose Ortiz.

“Jose said he’s been watching the track. He ran on it yesterday and knew the cushion wasn’t the same,” said Hushion in regard to the surface, which was rated nearly three full seconds faster than normal.

Both 3-year-old stakes winners, Isabelle and Captain Serious, are by Successful Appeal.

Early pick four recap

All told, the six stakes were worth $900,000, with the 10-race card offering more than $1.1 million in purses.

In the all-stakes early pick four, Isabelle and Captain Serious linked with Kharafa ($6.80) in the Kingston and Mah Jong Maddnes ($13.20) in the Mount Vernon for a $526 payoff.

Effie Trinket, at 2-5 in the Mount Vernon, was the shortest price in the sequence, and while unable to catch Mah Jong Maddness, completed an all-Freud exacta.

All-Ortiz late pick four

It was all Ortiz brothers all the time in the late pick four, which easily out-handled its $300,000 guarantee at $546,511.

Jose Ortiz got just enough out of a stretching-out La Verdad (race 7, $2.80) in the one-mile Critical Eye, as the fleet filly won past six furlongs for the first time in her career and also took the finale on Distorted Beauty ($13.80) to cap a $938 payoff.

In between, Irad Ortiz brought in longshot Lord of Love (race 8, $30.60), who won his seasonal debut as a first-time gelding for John Hertler, and Zivo (race 9, $4.70), who came from last in a field of 13 to nip a game Big Business in the Commentator Handicap as the 123-pound high weight.

Horse to watch

HENRY’S GAL
Trainer: Rudy Rodriguez
Last race: May 31, 3rd
Finish: 4th by 6 1/4
Beyer: 67

Need-to-lead filly lunged at the break, spotting the field several lengths, rushed to contention outside, and flattened out in the Bouwerie, as second choice and eventual winner Isabelle enjoyed an easy time of it up front.