Longer distance may be better for Quality Chic

Somewhat quietly, David Jacobson’s training comeback has been a success. Jacobson retired in 2018 but returned in 2022, winning a dozen races last year. During 2023, Jacobson has 71 winners from 385 starters, with his stable closing in on $4 million in earnings, numbers that can get a bump Sunday when Jacobson sends out Quality Chic in the featured seventh race at Aqueduct.

Quality Chic is among eight entrants in a dirt race for second-level allowance horses or $62,500 claimers, and he is one of six entered under the allowance condition. The race is carded for 1 3/16 miles, the farthest Quality Chic has run and a distance at which he might excel.

Quality Chic exits an easily ignorable poor performance, a last-place finish Nov. 18 in the Hill Prince Stakes. The question of whether Quality Chic possesses the talent to compete at the Grade 2 level was rendered moot by the horse’s apparent distaste for turf racing.

Quality Chic had tried turf once before, finishing a modest fourth, and in the Hill Prince he failed even to show his typical tactical speed, dropping to the rear before the first turn while tossing his head and fighting restraint. Quality Chic made a tiny move into the far turn but quickly flattened out and was kindly ridden through the last furlong and a half.

The turf performances looked nothing like the one the Quality Road gelding turned in Nov. 5, when he cleared his first allowance condition on dirt. Jacobson got the horse over the summer and ran him once at seven furlongs and three times over a mile, but a stretch-out to 1 1/8 miles in that Nov. 5 start brought out Quality Chic’s best.

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In the bridle while relaxed from the start, Quality Chic raced just behind the pace and in traffic to the quarter pole, where jockey Isaac Castillo pulled him outside the leaders. Quality Chic briefly lugged in at about the eighth pole before Castillo straightened him out and hand-rode his mount to a half-length victory over solid competition. Castillo had to work to begin pulling up Quality Chic, which bodes well for his chance of getting another half-furlong, and with luck, he’ll work out a similar trip Sunday.

Little Demon surely will try to lead but might have to work to go clear of Midnight Trouble to his inside, with Systemic Change and I Am the Law capable of pressing up on the outside. Stretched out from shorter routes, Little Demon had an easy lead but no late punch finishing third Nov. 12 in a 1 1/8-mile contest at this class level; it’s difficult seeing more distance as his friend.

Costa Terra rallied tepidly for second in the same race, finishing just a neck in front of Little Demon as the favorite. He could be favored again for trainer Linda Rice but appears to be a horse who peaked a couple months ago and might be in mild decline.

Fowler Blue, a grinder extraordinaire, faced graded-stakes competition in two of his last three starts and had no pace in front of him last out in a 1 1/4-mile Churchill Downs race at this level. Shipping from Kentucky, he’s a rare Aqueduct starter for trainer Doug O’Neill, who sent Anejo on a similar journey this past January to finish third in a 1 3/16-mile Aqueduct first-level allowance.

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