Nineteen Oysters takes next step in New York-bred allowance
?q=100)
Chad Summers had a proud papa moment last Saturday when he watched Derma Sotogake win the $1 million UAE Derby at Meydan by 5 1/2 lengths. Summers trained Mind Your Biscuits, the sire of Derma Sotogake. Though Mind Your Biscuits was a New York-bred champion sprinter, Summers had always felt he could have successfully stretched out in distance.
“To see one of his offspring do it and make it to the Kentucky Derby is pretty cool,” Summers said.
Summers has been searching for his next Mind Your Biscuits, and while one race does not a career define, Nineteen Oysters was pretty impressive winning his debut by 8 1/4 lengths for Summers on Feb. 24. Friday, Nineteen Oysters makes his second start while stretching out to a mile in a first-level allowance/starter optional $50,000 claimer for New York-bred 3-year-olds at Aqueduct.
“His debut was good,” Summers said. “He ran to how he was working. He broke well, he settled back, and never moved until the three-eighths pole. We think the farther he goes the better he’ll be.”
Apprentice Madison Olver, aboard for the debut, will again be on Nineteen Oysters from post 2 in this seven-horse field.
Trainer Tom Morley brings Mighty Atlas back to the race off a layoff dating back to a low-figure maiden win on Oct. 27. The horse was gelded during the winter to help with some hind-end issues, Morley said. Morley said he was ideally looking at a race in mid-April but feared that one wouldn’t fill when this one did.
“His last piece of work was very good,” Morley said. “He’s not a heavy horse. I don’t think he’ll lack fitness. Obviously, he hasn’t run for a long time, but I don’t think I’m taking a horse over that badly needs a race.”
Dr. Kraft, third in the Gander Stakes for trainer Chris Englehart, and Kerness, a winner of two claiming races for trainer Jamie Ness, are the other contenders in this field.
Earlier on the card, Morley sends out Curbstone and Complete Agenda in a first-level allowance/optional $45,000 claiming event for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles.
Curbstone had won two straight races before being upset by Good Skate at 2-5 in a 1 3/8-mile allowance on Feb. 26. Morley was looking for a more forward trip than he got that day and is making a rider switch to Manny Franco from Olver.
“Maddie gave him two super rides, but he should have won last time and we need to make sure we get it right,” Morley said. “He’s a very, very nice gelding. He’s obviously turned the corner since he got back” on dirt.
Complete Agenda had been dealing with foot issues, and Morley thinks he fits this race as well and could at least pick up the pieces, if not upset should Curbstone or the Shug McGaughey-trained Montauk Point stub their toe. Montauk Point is up from Florida where he finished second, beaten a head by Expressman, going this same 1 1/8-mile distance at Gulfstream.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how he gets on,” Morley said. “Can he beat Curbstone? I don’t know. Can Curbstone beat Shug’s horse? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be running Complete Agenda if I didn’t think he could pick up a big piece of the pie.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.