Our Last Buck turns back another furlong in Hollie Hughes

If Our Last Buck can handle the descension in distance he can continue his ascension in the New York-bred sprint division.

Coming off an allowance win at a mile and a victory in the Say Florida Sandy Stakes at seven furlongs, Our Last Buck will now turn back to six furlongs in Monday’s $100,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes at Aqueduct.

“Yeah, it’s going to definitely be a test for him, but he has run well going short in the past,” trainer Michelle Nevin said. “It’s just can you do it with a bit better caliber of horse?”

Our Last Buck, a 7-year-old gelding by Courageous Cat, will meet previous Hollie Hughes winners Amundson and My Boy Tate – the latter also trained by Nevin – in Monday’s race.

Nevin said getting Our Last Buck to relax has been the key to his recent success.

“I think we tried to keep him with the pony in his training, keep him as relaxed as possible and just over time he just steadily settled a lot more,” Nevin said.

Kendrick Carmouche, aboard Our Last Buck for the first time last out, has chosen to ride him back, eschewing the mount on Tribecca, whom Carmouche has ridden 20 times, including six victories.

The speedy Tribecca, a 7-year-old gelding by Bustin Stones, won the Hudson Handicap on Oct. 24 at Belmont. He came back a month later to finish fourth, beaten just one length in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap, a race in which he carried 130 pounds. Trainer Chris Englehart said that result was “a bit tough to swallow. You don’t make a lot of money and he took a lot of himself.”

To that point, Englehart said Tribecca is “still doing pretty good. Maybe not quite as good as he was for the Hudson and Fall Highweight, but he’s doing well.”

Trevor McCarthy rides Tribecca from the rail.

Tribecca will likely have to deal with pace pressure from Amundson, a front-running winner of last year’s Hollie Hughes. Amundson ran well in two open allowance races last summer before a last-place finish in the John Morrissey at Saratoga last July 30. At that time the decision was made to regroup with the gelding by Curlin.

Amundson has run well fresh in the past and his owner, Barry Schwartz, has won the Hollie Hughes six times. Jorge Vargas Jr. rides from post 5.

My Boy Tate finished fourth in the Gravesend and then Nevin ran him back a week later in the Say Florida Sandy, where he again finished fourth after chasing the pace. Nevin said “rushing him off his feet” may have been a mistake.

Big Engine may be the only member of this field without a stakes win, but he is in with a chance. Big Engine finished second to Tribecca in the Hudson one race after beating Tribeca in a second-level allowance last September. Big Engine, trained by Linda Rice, has not run since finishing fourth in an allowance at Laurel on Dec. 3.