O'Neill removing Wipe the Slate's blinkers for Gotham

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – An equipment change helped Wipe the Slate achieve his first career victory. Trainer Doug O’Neill hopes another change will help the 3-year-old get his second one.

O’Neill will remove the blinkers from Wipe the Slate’s equipment when he runs in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. Wipe the Slate will attempt to rebound from a last-place finish in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis on Jan. 30 at Santa Anita.

Wipe the Slate, a son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, finished second, beaten 9 1/2 lengths, to the highly touted Life Is Good in a Nov. 22 maiden race at Del Mar. O’Neill added blinkers to Wipe the Slate’s equipment, and he won a seven-furlong maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. In the Robert Lewis, Wipe the Slate’s first start around two turns, the colt chased Medina Spirit from second through solid early fractions and was basically done around the middle of the far turn.

“He can get a little distracted and doesn’t completely pay attention,” O’Neill said Wednesday about the equipment change. “The blinkers helped that out. But going two turns where you got to settle, breathe, and relax into that first turn it doesn’t help that out.

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“If we can let him get comfortable and more mentally mature, hopefully that will enable him get the two turns that he sure acts like in the morning won’t be a problem.”

O’Neill said Wipe the Slate, with Flavien Prat up, worked six furlongs in 1:11.60 without blinkers on Feb. 27 at Santa Anita.

Kendrick Carmouche, the meet’s leading rider, will have the mount on Wipe the Slate, who drew post 4 in a field of eight entered Wednesday.

The Gotham field swelled to eight at entry time, in part due to late entries of horses who were targeting a first-level allowance race on the card that was not used.

Freedom Fighter, the Bob Baffert-trained runner who finished second to Concert Tour in the San Vicente, will likely be the favorite. Trainer Chad Brown entered both Highly Motivated, winner of the Nyquist Stakes at Keeneland last November, and Crowded Trade, a maiden winner on debut Jan. 28. Atlantic Road, Weyburn, and The Reds, all of whom were under consideration for an allowance, were entered in the Gotham.

The top four finishers from the Gotham earn qualifying points on a 50-20-10-5 basis toward the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

The Gotham will go as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m.