Pumpkin Pie favorite watching the skies

ELMONT, N.Y. – The likelihood of a wet main track could impact Sunday’s $100,000 Pumpkin Pie Stakes as the probable favorite, Chalon, may not run if the track comes up sloppy.

“I think she’ll handle it fine, but it may not be the best move to run on a wet track,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said Friday. “We would have options in November and December.”

Chalon is a five-time listed stakes winner, the first of those coming at Belmont in the Jersey Girl Stakes in her 3-year-old season. Last year, at 4, Chalon finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. This year, she has two wins and two seconds from five starts and is coming out of a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland three weeks ago.

“It was a tough race, but she did run a little flat,” Delacour said. “She came back well from it.”

If Chalon doesn’t run, Ms Locust Point will try to add a sixth stakes win to her résumé before she is sold next month in Kentucky. She did win the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie at seven furlongs last year, but most recently she’s been racing at six and 6 1/2 furlongs.

She is a two-time winner over a wet surface and could be the main speed breaking from post 6 under Kendrick Carmouche.

The horse to beat on a wet track might be Saguaro Row, who did win an allowance race going six furlongs over a sloppy Belmont surface in May. She is coming off a third-place finish in the Shine Again Stakes at Laurel.

“She seems to love a little bit of a wet surface. We’re not opposed to running on that kind of surface, it helps her some,” trainer Michael Stidham said. “We’re trying to get a stakes win for her.”

The only question for Saguaro Row is the seven furlongs, a distance at which she is winless in three starts.

“I’m hoping the seven-eighths isn’t stretching her farther than she wants to go,” Stidham said.

Saguaro Row has the outside draw in an eight-horse field and will be ridden by Joel Rosario.

Pink Sands won the Lady’s Secret going 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth in June. She has been well beaten in two graded stakes going long at Saratoga and Churchill Downs. She shortens up in distance and might find the proper class relief in this spot. Jose Ortiz rides.

Majestic Reason, third to Come Dancing in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom; Honor Way, a recent starter-allowance winner over a wet surface here Oct. 16; Last True Love; and Philanthropic complete the field.

The Pumpkin Pie goes as race 7 on the card.