Lubash leaves statebred company for Artie Schiller Stakes
Aqueduct has slotted a pair of $100,000 stakes on its Saturday card, plus a high-level optional-claiming race.
The Artie Schiller, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up, will be run as race 8. It has 10 runners in the body of the race, an also-eligible, and four main-track-only entrants. The top contenders are the rugged 8-year-old Lubash and Reload, who is 2 for 4 this year and 4 for 6 since being switched to turf.
Although Todd Pletcher doesn’t have a horse in the Artie Schiller, he is well represented on the undercard. In the Notebook Stakes, a six-furlong race for 2-year-old statebreds, he has the two likely favorites in Sudden Surprise and Spooked Out. Pletcher also has Mylute, the runner-up in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler last out, in the optional claimer that goes as race 7.
A half-inch or more of rain was expected in the New York area Thursday night, meaning the Aqueduct turf likely will be less than firm Saturday. With temperatures Friday and Saturday forecast to reach only the low to mid-50s, minimum drying can be expected.
Lubash has won on good and yielding courses but has raced only on firm turf since winning the Grade 3 Tropical Turf Handicap at Gulfstream Park West a year ago. Reload never has raced on a course less than firm.
A horse to consider if the course is wet is the 3-year-old longshot Vision Perfect, trained by David Donk. He was second to two-time graded stakes winner Takeover Target in the Grade 3 Hill Prince over soft Belmont footing Oct. 3 and won the $100,000 Awad over yielding ground at Belmont in October 2014.
Lubash is a remarkable horse having arguably his best year since being transferred to Christophe Clement in 2012. He has won four of his last five starts – all against New York-breds – and closed quickly in his last race to nip familiar foe Kharafa by a head in the $200,000 Mohawk on Oct. 24.
Although he is stepping out of statebred company, he is the 124-pound highweight under the allowance conditions of this race and will spot his opponents two to four pounds.
Reload won his first two grass starts for Shug McGaughey in early 2014, then was away from the races with some “soft-tissue issues” for 15 months, McGaughey said. He has won 2 of 4 starts since beginning his comeback in May. Although he has good speed, he closed nicely from off the pace to win a high-level optional race in his last start.
Other players in this competitive field include Plainview, who makes his first start since being claimed off a win by David Jacobson; Slip By, coming off a Laurel Park win over yielding ground for Michael Matz; and Aztec Brave, sent in from Kentucky by Joe Sharp.
** In the Notebook, Pletcher has the field surrounded with Spooked Out, who drew post 1, and Sudden Surprise, who will break from post 8 on the far outside.
Sudden Surprise is the more accomplished of the pair, having won the Funny Cide at Saratoga and the Bertram F. Bongard at Belmont. He finished fourth going a mile in the Sleepy Hollow in his last start and might appreciate the turnback from a mile to six furlongs. Spooked Out enters off a 9 1/2-length maiden victory that netted him an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.
Both horses were bred and are owned by Mike Repole. John Velazquez, who has ridden each, is named on Sudden Surprise. Chris DeCarlo picks up the ride on Spooked Out.