Mr Skylight looks for better break in Awesome Banner Handicap

Mr Skylight returns to Gulfstream Park on Saturday for the first time since his maiden win to start as one of the highweights in the $75,000 Awesome Banner, an overnight handicap for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.

Mr Skylight, who is weighted at 121 pounds, is part of a field of nine that includes recent allowance winners Big Effect – who is highweighted at 122 pounds – and Holiday Pay, weighted at 121.

Mr Skylight ran the first two races of his career at Gulfstream, finishing second in a maiden special weight sprint and then graduating under the same conditions in March. He went on to win a first-level allowance at Keeneland, then ran third in the Grade 3 Chick Lang at Pimlico. For the Awesome Banner, Mr Skylight will be removing blinkers following an uncharacteristic seventh-place finish in a six-furlong allowance at Churchill Downs.

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“After the Pimlico race, we decided to try the blinkers and he breezed well with them a couple of times,” said Riley Mott, who trains Mr Skylight. “So, we ran him in them a couple times and I’m just not sure he’s the same horse with them than he is without them.

“We’ve taken them off in the mornings and have worked him a couple of times without them since his last race and he’s responded well. We’re getting him on a racetrack surface we know he likes and, hopefully, he appreciates the little stretch-out in distance as well.”

Mr Skylight has a few different reasons to be closer to the pace Saturday than he found himself in his most recent start, when he broke last of all in a race that went in a quick 1:08.98.

“There’s been a couple of races where he’s broken sharp and showed speed and then there’s a couple races, such as the last one and the race at Pimlico, where he just hasn’t broke,” Mott said. “He acts well in the gate. It’s just a matter of him jumping out or not when they open the gate, so it’s something we’ve worked on. Hopefully, we catch him on a good day.”

Paco Lopez has the mount from post 2.

“He should be a little closer than he generally is, especially stretching out a bit,” Mott said. “He’s one that’s laid up close before and had some success. We’ll just kind of play the break, see how he breaks, and go from there.”

Mr Skylight is a son of Practical Joke who races for his breeder, Peter Vegso.

Big Effect is returning to the straight 3-year-old ranks after defeating older rivals in a second-level allowance Sept. 28 at Gulfstream. Big Effect wired the field and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 83.

Holiday Pay is shortening up from a mile win over first-level allowance rivals at Gulfstream. He, too, defeated older runners in the race run Oct. 18. Holiday Pay raced with the pace, and the Beyer of 85 that he earned is the best last-race number in the Awesome Banner.

◗ Petulante, a Grade 3-winning son of Arrogate, recently shipped from his South Florida base to New York to begin a stud career at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions, trainer Victor Barboza Jr. said.

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