Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Senor Buscador cuts back to best distance in Cigar Mile

Aqueduct | Race 9 | Post Time 3:35 p.m. (ET)

This Cigar Mile drew an interesting field of 11 but it’s pretty easy to narrow the list of contenders down to the five shortest prices on the morning line. I tentatively made Mullikin (#5) the slight choice on the line, but any of four horses could reasonably go favored here. Mullikin returned for his 4-year-old campaign as a new horse, reeling off four consecutive victories while positioning himself as one of the top sprinters in the country. He perhaps wasn’t beating the strongest Grade 1 field in the Forego, but he won that race convincingly with a 128 TimeformUS Speed Figure. He was subsequently made the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, where he could only manage a third-place finish. Yet he was hardly disgraced in defeat, closing well after getting outrun early. He acts like a horse who should handle this stretch-out to a mile, and Rodolphe Brisset is 16 for 63 (25%, $2.34 ROI) with first time routers on dirt over five years.

Post Time (#11) also exits the Breeders’ Cup, and iscoming off a strong second-place finish in the Dirt Mile. He found himself in last early and made an admirable rally from far off the pace, passing all but a winner who delivered the best performance of his career. It’s not the first time Post Time has run well against top-level competition, having placed in the Met Mile and Whitney earlier this year. He won the Carter over this track in the spring, and appears to have improved since then. He should be rolling late if pace develops.

The two main players who skipped the Breeders’ Cup are both 3-year-olds. Book’em Danno (#1) opted to try softer company in the Grade 3 Perryville at Keeneland and lost as a heavy favorite. However, he didn’t get an ideal trip that day, stuck in traffic along the inside and not finding a clear path until it was too late. I’m just still slightly bothered by the fact he’s run slightly worse than expectations in three consecutive starts. Locked (#7) could be a popular option as he steps back up into stakes company after missing much of his 3-year-old campaign. He obviously once had the talent to compete at this level, and his return from the layoff was certainly encouraging. It’s just asking a lot of this horse to face a field like this off one return race.

My top pick is Senor Buscador (#9), last year’s runner-up in this race. Though he was beaten four lengths, he arguably ran the best race in defeat, attempting to make a wide rally from the back of the pack over a course that was tilted towards inside speed. He’s coming into this year’s Cigar Mile off a similar pattern, having competed in the same series of races leading into this. His form had initially been disappointing when he returned from a layoff this summer, but he got back on track last time in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, arguably running better in that race than he

had the prior year. The pace was in his favor, but he had to navigate some traffic trying to close inside as the race came apart. He will appreciate this cutback to one mile, and Joel Rosario appears to be a good fit for him. He also should be the best price among the main players