Pimlico Special next race for Law Professor
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Law Professor, dominant winner of the Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct on April 1, is being pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special on May 19, trainer Rob Atras said Thursday.
Atras said the timing and proximity of that race and the likelihood that some of the tougher older male dirt horses would run in races such as the Grade 2, $1 million Oaklawn Handicap on April 22 or the Grade 2, $600,000 Alysheba at Churchill Downs on May 6 make it an attractive spot.
“Duck the big boys and maybe meet them later on,” Atras said.
Law Professor has done well in two-turn races at 1 1/8-miles, with victories in the Queens County and Excelsior and a good second to Life Is Good in the Grade 1 Woodward. The fact the Pimlico Special is run at 1 3/16 miles is not a concern to Atras.
“He has seemed to handle the mile-and-an-eighth, and two turns he likes,” Atras said. “Probably don’t have to rush him out of the gate. Naturally, he can probably get a good trip, sit close.”
Atras said Law Professor would likely work over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Atras has plenty of options with a pair of 3-year-olds who have posted recent wins. Balpool, a 3-year-old daughter of Uncaptured, won a first-level allowance race here on April 7 by 9 1/2 lengths, her second win from four starts. She earned a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure.
Atras said he didn’t have a definitive next race picked out for Balpool but said he would nominate her to the Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico, the same day as the Pimlico Special.
“Even if we could hit the board, it’d be great,” Atras said.
Atras said he glad to see Balpool bounce back from a fourth-place finish in a one-turn mile allowance at Laurel on March 10.
“I always thought she was a nice filly, but she seems to be the kind of filly who needs a little space between races,” Atras said. “She’s a big, good-looking filly. She surprised me a bit how she won the other day; that’s what we were hoping she would do when we first got her stretched out to a mile.”
Harrodsburg, a debut winning 3-year-old colt by Constitution, is likely pointing to an allowance race early in the Belmont meet, Atras said.
While Atras has gotten the Aqueduct spring meet off to a good start with five wins from his first 14 starters, he was still lamenting the bad stumble by Rossa Veloce as the favorite in the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap on April 7. Rossa Veloce rushed up after the stumble and then faded to fourth, beaten seven lengths by winner Mommasgottarun.
“I would have felt better if she got nipped on the wire than when they break like that and stumble,” Atras said. “It was so brutal.”
Atras said Rossa Veloce, who two starts back won the Correction Stakes, emerged from the stumble okay and will be considered for the Grade 3, $175,000 Vagrancy at Belmont on May 14.
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