No luck in the draw for Yonaguska

JAMAICA, N.Y. - Turkey, football, and 10 races from Aqueduct, including the $100,000-added Fall Highweight Handicap, should sate New York sport fans on Thanksgiving Day.

Thursday's holiday card starts at 11 a.m. and is scheduled to conclude at approximately 3:04 p.m.

D. Wayne Lukas, the trainer of Yonaguska, the 131-pound starting highweight and likely Fall Highweight favorite, settled for the consolation prize when his colt failed to gain a berth to the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint. Instead Yonaguska, who lacked the points to run in the Sprint, won the $100,000 Sport Page on the undercard.

Yonaguska, close to the early pace, won the Sport Page by 1 1/2 lengths over Silky Sweep, who also will run in the six-furlong Fall Highweight, a Grade 2.

Mike Marlow, Lukas's assistant, said Yonaguska's outside post in the six-horse Sport Page was key.

"Post position is critical with this horse," Marlow said Tuesday morning. "He does his best running outside. He's tough on his lead changes, and if he's running down on the inside, he starts to look at horses outside of him and is reluctant to change leads. If he gets to the outside, it's better for his kick."

At the draw, Tuesday afternoon, Yonaguska couldn't have drawn any worse - post 1 in the 11-horse field. Jose Santos rides.

Silky Sweep had the summer off to recuperate from a quarter crack and returned in September to win a classified allowance and then was a fast-closing second in the Sport Page.

Silky Sweep's trainer, John Terranova, said a swifter pace would have helped.

"[The pace] seemed a little slow for the first half-mile [46.16 seconds] for those types of horses, but he was finishing just as fast as the rest of them," Terranova said. "I imagine this race will have an even stronger pace. He seems great; he seems like he's ready to go."

Edgar Prado rides Silky Sweep, who drew post 5 and carries 130 pounds.

Double Star, In C C's Honor, and Voodoo figure to be prominent in the early going.

Istintaj, looking to regain the form he had last winter, would benefit from an energetic pace.

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