Mr Skylight may sit off potential Chick Lang speed duel

BALTIMORE – Mr Skylight won a first-level allowance race at Keeneland on the front end last month, but it may be the off-the-pace style he used to win his maiden two starts back that will serve him best in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Chick Lang Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at Pimlico.

Mr Skylight had his head turned when he broke slow in a March 16 maiden race at Gulfstream Park, but he was able to get off the inside and work out a four-wide stalking trip that he used to win by a half-length. That made him one of five next-out winners from a Feb. 10 maiden race at Gulfstream won by Mr Skylight’s stablemate Beeline.

In his first try against winners on April 20, Mr Skylight dueled between horses, found himself down on the inside when one of the speed horses dropped out of it, and persevered to the wire to win by three-quarters of a length.

“He won a nice allowance with a good number at Keeneland, so I think he deserves a shot in a black-type race,” said Riley Mott, who has won two listed stakes but no graded events since going out on his own last fall. “He broke his maiden from off the pace, he appears to be a pretty adaptable horse.”

Mr Skylight, who blew out three furlongs in 35.70 seconds on Wednesday at Keeneland before shipping to Baltimore, will break from the rail under Flavien Prat.

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“Hopefully, he breaks and has a stalking position, that’s how I see it on paper,” Mott said.

Among the many speed horses in this eight-horse field is Frost Free, who set the pace in the Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn Park before being run down by Valentine Candy, who was winning his fourth stakes of the Oaklawn meet.

“I thought it was a good race. He’s improving, he stepped up a notch, I can’t fault him for that,” trainer Brett Creighton said. “I think we’re good to go.”

Creighton seemed unconcerned about the other speed in the Lang.

“It ain’t gonna bother him,” said Creighton, who has Irad Ortiz Jr. to ride. “He’s pretty quick. He’s got plenty of heart.”

The other speed in the field seems to be Catahoula Moon, Classic Joke, and potentially Sweet Soddy J.

Steve Asmussen has won the Chick Lang a record five times. Saturday, he’ll send out Cats by Five, who is only 1 for 8 and who recently finished third behind his Asmussen-trained stablemate Valentine Candy in the Bachelor. His running style suggests he may be aided by a contested pace.

“He’s solid and I think he’s a great, big heavy horse that’s getting a little faster with every race,” Asmussen said.

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Catahoula Moon and Petingas Twin show up here after finishing one-two in an allowance race from which the third-place finisher, Play Harder, came back to win his next start.

Market Street, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, finished sixth in the Bachelor Stakes.

Classic Joke shortens up to six furlongs after finishing ninth of 10 in the Federico Tesio Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on April 20 at Laurel Park.

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