Room for Me ruled ineligible to run Wednesday

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Room for Me, the 3-5 morning-line favorite, will be scratched from Wednesday’s $72,000 third race at Aqueduct because she is ineligible, the New York stewards confirmed Monday.

Room for Me, claimed for $12,500 on Feb. 12 at Santa Anita, won the $50,000 Videogenic Stakes as part of New York’s inaugural Claiming Championships on March 21. She won the race by 13 1/2 lengths and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 105, easily the best number of the six horses in Wednesday’s field.

David Jacobson, the owner and trainer of Room for Me, was under the impression that the Videogenic was viewed similar to a starter allowance, which meant a victory in that race woud not have precluded her from running in an open allowance race. The racing office obviously viewed it as a starter race as well, since it took the entry.

However, the stewards ordered the horse scratched because the Videogenic was actually a stakes race.

The scratch of Room for Me will leave the six-furlong allowance race with a field of five. Spark and Bossy Saratoga were listed as the second and third choices, and now figure to vie for favoritism in the race.