Recruiting Ready tries to end season with a bang in Fall Highweight

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Most post positions have switched, some riding assignments are different and, most importantly, track condition is likely to change, but the horse to beat remains the same in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct.

Recruiting Ready ended his 4-year-old season with a victory in the Gravesend here last Dec. 23 and will look to end his 5-year-old campaign in similar fashion in the Fall Highweight, rescheduled from the Thursday card, which was canceled due to high winds.

Recruiting Ready went from post 4 to post 7 when the race was redrawn Thursday. Irad Ortiz Jr. takes over for Jose Ortiz, who is not riding Sunday. A forecast that calls for rain will likely make the track sloppy Sunday. Recruiting Ready earned a career-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure winning an allowance on a sloppy track at Belmont in May 2018.

“I don’t think track condition bothers him too much,” said Stan Hough, trainer of Recruiting Ready. “He runs hard. When he’s right, he’s tough. It would have taken a pretty good horse to beat him at Churchill. He ran a great race.”

Recruiting Ready enters the Fall Highweight off a 3 3/4-length victory in the Bet On Sunshine Stakes on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs. He won that race on the lead, but he’s won from a stalking position as well. There is other speed in this race such as Strike Power, Seethisquick, and possibly Happy Farm.

“He doesn’t have to have the lead, but if he takes him there, sometimes that’s what he does,” Hough said.

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 3 to 10 pounds.

One new entrant to the field from when it was originally drawn is Nicodemus, who upset the Grade 3 Westchester in the slop in May at Belmont. He has not run since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 John Nerud on July 6 at Belmont. Trainer Linda Rice said Nicodemus needed a chip removed from an ankle after that race.

“I didn’t enter him first time because I thought he needed another breeze and I was able to get another one in him,” Rice said. “He likes the mud, but it looks like the whole field likes the mud.”

Stan the Man, beaten a neck by Nicodemus in the Westchester, is 3 for 5 in the mud. He has not run since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 True North at Belmont in June. Trainer John Terranova said he was looking to use this as a starting point to stretch Stan the Man out in distance later on.

“We anticipate he would sit back and come with a late run,” Terranova said. “Three-quarters isn’t his type of race necessarily, but he’s capable of running well in these sprints.”

Stan the Man will break from post 5 under Dylan Davis.

Strike Power went from post 6 to post 2 and has Javier Castellano to ride as John Velazquez is at Del Mar. Joel Rosario picks up the mount on Wonderful Light from Manny Franco, also at Del Mar. Wonderful Light is now on the rail.

Happy Farm, Seethisquick, and No Distortion complete the field.

The Fall Highweight goes as race 8 on a nine-race card scheduled to begin at 12:20 p.m.