Mister Marti Gras heads high-quality allowance

Friday’s featured second race at Arlington is a good one, a high-level allowance with multiple conditions that’s also open to $80,000 claimers and carded for 1 1/16 miles on Polytrack. The field of eight includes several potential winners, with Mister Marti Gras the best-known entrant in the field.

The 9-year-old gelding Mister Marti Gras might have been retired earlier this year had he not continued to show competitive fire on the track. He won for a $62,500 claiming price this past spring at Tampa Bay Downs and in his most recent start June 11 finished second by a nose in a 1 1/8-mile race at this class level. The horse who beat him that day, Only In America, is back for Friday’s race, as are the third-, fourth-, and sixth-place finishers – Valiant City, Crewman, and Francois.

Crewman battled for the early lead June 11 and doesn’t want to go nine furlongs, but he threatens to shake loose Friday under E.T. Baird and is better suited to this 1 1/16-mile trip. Also worth considering is the rail-drawn Coco Mon, who has been posting eye-catching workouts while preparing to come back from a long layoff for trainer Frank Kirby.