Readthecliffnotes could be alone up front in Buck's Boy

Last weekend at Hawthorne, on June 16, the Michele Boyce-trained mare Katie M’lady took an early lead and never relinquished it, winning a female-restricted Illinois-bred turf route handicap over the Chris Block-trained favorite, Oeuvre.

One Sunday later, the same thing can happen in the $75,000 Buck’s Boy Handicap, a turf mile for older Illinois-breds.

Boyce sends out Readthecliffnotes, all but certain to set the pace at 9-2 on the track’s morning line. Block’s hope is Another Mystery, who has no middle-distance turf speed whatsoever and is the 9-5 favorite and 120-pound starting highweight in a six-horse field.

Nine-year-old Readthecliffnotes, who carries 119 pounds, has two seconds and a third from seven turf starts, but generalized statistics must be put into context.

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His grass debut, a dud, came in the gelding’s third career start – about 5 1/2 years ago at Tampa Bay Downs. In his second grass race, he reared at the start and raced five wide on the first turn. His third grass race, another modest showing – and we’re all the way up to August 2020 now – came following a layoff of more than nine months, and Readthecliffnotes then took two close losses in a pair of turf routes. The sixth grass race didn’t happen until two years later, Readthecliffnotes returning from a year’s absence to set the pace and lose at this class level by a mere neck. And finally, May 19, a high-level open allowance that saw Readthecliffnotes dueling on a fast pace and fading to fourth, two lengths behind Another Mystery.

This time, there is no other obvious pace player to keep Readthecliffnotes and jockey Olaf Hernandez from dictating the tempo. Even at an advanced age, Readthecliffnotes, in earlier starts this year, showed no sign of significant decline.

And it’s not like Another Mystery is some spring chicken. An 8-year-old Team Block homebred, Another Mystery hit a much higher peak than Readthecliffnotes ever did, establishing himself as a graded stakes-level performer in turf races at 1 1/2 miles or thereabouts. At his peak, Another Mystery could beat Illinois-breds in middle-distance races well short of his best trip. At this stage of his career, and if Readthecliffnotes shakes loose on the lead over a foot-rattling course that promoted speed last weekend, getting up in time will be a big ask.

The other horse with a chance is 6-year-old Richiesgotgame. Trainer Mike Maker has made a career dropping high-end claims on older turf horses, but the $62,500 that Paradise Farms and David Staudacher paid to claim Richiesgotgame in February 2023 has so far not been money well spent. Richiesgotgame didn’t race competitively in March and May of 2023 after the claim, then didn’t race at all for more than a year. His June 4 comeback race at Horseshoe Indianapolis yielded a mild fifth-place finish, though bettors should keep in mind Richiesgotgame bested Readthecliffnotes and Another Mystery in an October 2022 Hawthorne grass stakes.

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