Pucker Up anchors solid pick four, pick five wagers
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Pucker Up would be of consequence even in a vacuum. It’s a Grade 3, $100,000 turf stakes that claims a proud history, tracing its Arlington Park roots to 1961.
But its reach goes a bit farther Saturday as the last of 12 Million Day races: It’s the final leg of a multitude of multi-race wagers, including a pick five (races 8-12) with a $150,000 pool guarantee and a pick four (races 9-12) with a $300,000 guarantee.
Immediacy aside, it’s worth noting that the 2017 Pucker Up winner, Fault, eventually won a Grade 1 – and the 13-horse lineup for the 55th running Saturday includes 3-year-old fillies of upward mobility led by Beyond Blame, winner of the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill Downs in her last start. A tactically handy filly, Beyond Blame will have Florent Geroux aboard when she breaks from the outside post as a 3-1 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race.
“The post could be tough to overcome, but the good thing is she’s really been training great,” said her trainer, Brad Cox, whose stable accounted for five stakes victories last weekend between Mountaineer and Ellis Park.
A host of major players in the Pucker Up also include Dark Artist, riding a three-race win streak when shipping in from New Jersey for trainer Jane Cibelli; Pamina, a last-out Belmont allowance winner for Michael Dickinson; Cosmic Burst, a two-time stakes winner making her grass debut and trained by Donnie Von Hemel; A.A. Azula’s Arch, in from Canada off a series of sharp efforts for Kevin Attard; Secret Message, a live longshot for Graham Motion; and the uncoupled Kenny McPeek duo of Princess Warrior and Deadline.
Secret Message, a private purchase this spring for Sol Kumin and partners, most recently was fourth with a legitimate excuse in the June 16 Regret.
“She acted up in the gate and kind of got left,” Motion said. “I think she ran better than it’s going to look on paper.”
Both of the McPeek fillies enter off solid races. “They’re both hunting for some higher-level black type,” he said.
Post time for the Pucker Up is 6:51 p.m. Central.
The Tabulator heads Bruce D.
The opening leg of the pick five, the $100,000 Bruce D. Memorial (race 8, post 4:08), is the lone ungraded stakes of the card, and the only one on the main Polytrack surface. A field of nine 3-year-olds is entered in the one-turn mile.
The Tabulator is a 2-1 program favorite for the meet’s leading trainer, Larry Rivelli. The Dialed In colt has been all-or-nothing in seven starts, winning four times while being soundly thrashed in the other three.
His chief opposition could come from Chief Oakie Dokie, a homebred trained by Artie Coontz, a former Chris Block assistant; Nobrag Justfact, going turf-to-synthetic for Eric Heitzmann; and Strollin the Bayou, a Block trainee who’s the only filly in the lineup.
The Bruce D. honors the late Bruce Duchossois, son of Arlington chairman Richard L. Duchossois. Earlier in the day, a first-time starter named Duchossois will make his career debut in race 3 for owner Midwest Thoroughbreds.