Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Shefflin returns from layoff in Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship
Aqueduct | Race 8 | Post Time 3:10 p.m. (ET)
Senbei (#9) is a deserving favorite as he seeks to notch his second stakes victory in a row after taking the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint last month. This 5-year-old has finally found his niche as a turf sprinter after losing his dirt form and then getting some difficult trips last year and earlier this season. The trip worked out to perfection last time as he relaxed off an honest and contested pace before pouncing in the stretch. He easily defeated favorite Nothing Better, striding out impressively before galloping out well clear of that group. A repeat of that performance will make him tough for this field to beat, the only downside being that he will be a shorter price now that his best form is exposed.
Alogon (#6) was easily beaten by Senbei last time, but he had the slightly more difficult trip, chasing two speeds while racing three wide without cover. He failed to get by Nothing Better in the stretch, but he’s probably better when he can relax behind horses and make one run. He should have a better opportunity to do that this time with Irad Ortiz Jr. taking over the reins, but he still has to get back to his better efforts from last season.
I’m taking a shot against the favorite with a new face. Shefflin (#10) has done the majority of his best work on synthetic at Turfway Park, but he did make his winning career debut on turf last fall at Churchill Downs. He subsequently faced some softer allowance fields over the winter, but he ran very well when stepped up against stakes company when last seen in March. The Big Daddy Stakes at Turfway has been a key race, from which winner Candy Overload came back to win a stakes at Woodbine and also-rans Our Shot and Here Mi Song also went on to achieve stakes success later in the season. Shefflin is returning from a layoff, but William Morey has pretty good statistics with those types, as well as with horses switching from synthetic to turf. There isn’t an abundance of speed in this race, and he should get a good stalking trip.