Saturday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Shootersgottashoot capable of better in second New York start

Aqueduct | Race 5 | Post Time 3:26 p.m. (ET)

Lotsa Trouble (#5) is the one to beat as he returns on short rest to contest this starter allowance. That victory one week ago came for a $25,000 claiming tag, and each of his last three wins have been earned in claiming races. He did get a pretty strong pace setup in that most recent start and unleased his typical strong finish to get up on the wire. Stretching back out to a mile should suit him, but he is being asked to run a big race for the third time in just 16 days.

There does appear to be plenty of pace signed on, but J J's Ranger (#10) might be the quickest of them all early. He dominated an overmatched field of $10,000 claimers two back but then ran surprisingly well off the claim against some tougher starter-allowance foes last time. He did get a favorable front-running trip that day, but at least now he's drawn outside of other speed as he cuts back to a mile.

I want to bet Shootersgottashoot (#4) in his second start since the trainer switch to Peter Synnefias. He got outrun going 6 1/2 furlongs last time, but he lost positioning early and actually did well to close through the late stages in a race dominated towards the front end. He was running on best across the wire and galloped out ahead of his rivals. That's one of the tougher races that any of these are exiting, and he proved he belongs at the level. His effort makes me think that stretching out to a mile should suit him, even though he's relatively inexperienced at this distance.