Rivelli high on Lewys Vaporizer in mile feature
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLEARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Despite a purse cut revealed last weekend and sky-will-fall rhetoric as the race week expands from three days to four, the first Thursday card of the 2015 Arlington meeting looks pretty good.
Field size isn’t overwhelming, but 63 horses entered in eight races isn’t bad. There’s a 2-year-old maiden special weight race carded (race 6); in general more quality than Arlington bettors have come to expect this season; and in particular an appearance, in race 3, by Lewys Vaporizer, one of the fastest horses on the grounds.
Lewys Vaporizer is fresh off a trip to New York, where he accompanied stablemate Cocked and Loaded, who won the Tremont Stakes on June 5 at Belmont. On the same card, Lewys Vaporizer, who became hot and agitated before the race, set a fast, contested pace in a rich first-level allowance and finished a good third, beaten a head for second in a race won by the talented Speightster.
That race was worth $90,000, and on Thursday, Lewys Vaporizer starts for a $22,050 purse. Why bother running? Because trainer Larry Rivelli feels like Lewys Vaporizer is a slam dunk.
“He’s training like a monster,” Rivelli said. “I can’t see him not winning this race.”
The betting should reflect as much: Lewys Vaporizer is 9-5 on the morning line but likely will be 3-5 or shorter when the betting closes. Before his Belmont start, Lewys Vaporizer was a good third in a Derby Day optional-claiming race at Churchill, and that after a blowout Hawthorne maiden win.
On Thursday, he drops in class into an Illinois-bred first-level allowance, and even if he wins this restricted race, Lewys Vaporizer remains eligible for another huge purse in open, first-level allowance company at Saratoga, where Rivelli hopes to run him.
But look hard enough and tiny fissures appear in Lewys Vaporizer’s façade of invincibility. His three strong showings this year came on dirt, but his debut last summer on the Arlington Polytrack produced a distant fifth-place finish. According to Rivelli, a bucked shin, and not the track surface, led to that performance, and Rivelli said Lewys Vaporizer has worked strongly here.
But good-looking Polytrack works can be deceiving, and the front-running Lewys Vaporizer has landed in a spot with three other pace factors. From the rail, Disorderly Conduct should come out swinging, and to the outside, Tail Gunner Carl and Armando’s Star will go forward.
Closers had a better chance on Arlington’s main track last weekend than during any previous card last month, and a protracted pace battle could allow Giantstepsbdancing or Big Man in Black to spring an upset at odds inflated by the favorite’s aura of invincibility.