Recruiting Ready must deal with other speed in Fall Highweight
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – With Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire expected to run in Wednesday night’s Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National, Recruiting Ready will become the horse to beat in Thursday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct.
The Fall Highweight, a six-furlong race where horses carry about 10 more pounds than in a typical sprint stakes, is the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature at Aqueduct. The nine-race card begins at 11:50 a.m. and also includes the $150,000 Winter Memories for fillies and mares on turf and the $100,000 Central Park for 2-year-olds, also on turf.
Recruiting Ready ended his 4-year-old season with a victory in the Gravesend here last Dec. 23, giving his trainer, Stan Hough, his first stakes victory since he returned to training after a six-year hiatus. Recruiting Ready added two more stakes wins in 2019, including a 3 3/4-length victory in the Bet On Sunshine Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 2.
“His last race was one of his best,” Hough said Monday from Kentucky. “This is a little quicker back than I’d like, but this plans to be our last race for a while.”
Recruiting Ready, who won the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship in March, is the starting highweight at 132 pounds. He will be spotting his rivals 4 to 10 pounds.
More than weight, Recruiting Ready’s biggest issue Thursday might be the bevy of other speed horses entered in the Fall Highweight. Recruiting Ready has had most of his success when able to secure the early lead, but he will have other speed types such as Strike Power, Seethisquick, and possibly Happy Farm near him early.
“He doesn’t have to be in front, but if he takes him there then it’s better to leave him there,” said Hough, who has Jose Ortiz to ride.
Happy Farm also is entered in the Fall Highweight and the Fabulous Strike. Since he will run Firenze Fire at Penn National, trainer Jason Servis will likely run Happy Farm in the Fall Highweight. Happy Farm has won his last three starts, all against lesser competition. He is drawn nicely outside and has four seconds from five starts at Aqueduct.
Trainer Michelle Nevin, who won Sunday’s New York Stallion Series Stakes with My Boy Tate, sends out Wonderful Light in the Fall Highweight. Wonderful Light won allowance races at Laurel and Saratoga before finishing third at 4-5 in the Challedon Stakes at Laurel on Sept. 28. He figures to be stalking the pace.
“We’re in a little bit deep, but hopefully with his style it’ll work out,” Nevin said. “He was too keen early last time and he kind of flattened out.”
Stan the Man returns from a near six-month layoff and at a distance that may be shorter than his best. But at six furlongs, he figures to be coming with a late run.
“We anticipate he would sit back and come with a late run,” trainer John Terranova said. “Three-quarters isn’t his type of race necessarily, but he’s capable of running well in these sprints.”
Lewisfield is cross-entered in this and the Fabulous Strike. No Distortion is the 122-pound lowweight who is coming off a last-to-first victory in a $40,000 claimer on Nov. 8.
