Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Printrack ready to step up in class
Aqueduct | Race 4 | Post Time 1:46 p.m. (ET)
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The David Jacobson entry figures to go favored here with Colonel Vargo (#1) seemingly the stronger half of the pair. He’s run well in all of his starts on dirt, winning 5 of 6 attempts on this surface with one second. He’s also really stepped up his game since getting claimed by Jacobson for $25k in September. He was a convincing winner of his first start off the claim going seven furlongs, and then seemed to relish the slight cutback last time when facing a tougher field. He got a contested pace to close into, and made his reliable stretch bid to get up at the wire. He will be a handful here if he continues moving forward.
I also think the other half of the Jacobson entry is mildly interesting. Big Engine (#1A) is coming out of a much cheaper race, but he seemed to get a needed confidence boost that day after his form had been tailing off. He might be ready to step back in the right direction, and he does have plenty of classy prior form that would make him competitive at this level.
I want to beat this entry with one alternative who also seems to be in the best form of his career right now. Printrack (#3) steps up out of claiming races for Rudy Rodriguez, who has continued to move this horse forward since claiming him for just $12,500. He had shown some ability early in his career, but had been plagued by inconsistency for prior trainers. He seemed to get back on track at Saratoga, and he’s held that form for the new barn at Aqueduct. His last race on Nov. 3 was particularly impressive, since he made an early move to engage the leader through some quick early splits before drawing away from the other speeds. Chuck Willis, who is back in today’s race, faded to third after dueling with this horse and came back to win with an improved speed figure. A repeat of Printrack’s 113 TimeformUS Speed Figure should be good enough to beat the favorite. The Pace Projector is predicting a scenario favoring front-runners, and he should be perfectly positioned off Chuck Willis once again.