Seven Lilies, Double Shot banking on fast pace in Thursday allowance

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It looks like there should be a lively pace in Thursday’s second-level New York-bred allowance feature at Aqueduct, which ought to please the connections of Seven Lilies and Double Shot.

Seven Lilies, trained by Bob Klesaris, is in for the allowance condition after rallying from 5 1/2 lengths off the pace to win this same kind of race Jan. 30 when he was offered for the optional $40,000 claiming tag. Seven Lilies was making his second start for Klesaris, who claimed him from Rob Atras. In the first, he finished ninth, beaten 26 lengths when running a mile in the mud on New Year’s Day.

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Klesaris said he has no excuse for that performance and simply threw it out and ventured on.

Speaking of Seven Lilies’s last race, Klesaris said: “Visually, it was very powerful. I think the horse’s three best races were the two he ran for Atras and the last one for me. They’re all very similar races. Whatever Atras did with him straightened him out and I just kept it going.”

Apprentice rider Luis Cardenas, who has ridden all five of Klesaris’s winners at this winter meet, rides Seven Lilies from post 5.

Double Shot, trained and partly owned by David Donk, rallied from 10 lengths back on Jan. 17 to win a first-level allowance for New York-breds by three-quarters of a length. The horse he beat, Bustin Timberlake, came back to win his first-level condition by 6 3/4 lengths, earning a 99 Beyer Speed Figure.

While Double Shot appears to have shown gradual improvement since Donk added blinkers, Donk believes the improvement has come since he gelded the horse last summer.

“He really moves better,” Donk said.

Donk also said that jockey Eric Cancel suggested to Donk that he shorten him up in distance after he rode the horse to a third-place finish going a mile three starts back.

“When I ran him a mile, Eric said to me, ‘This horse gave me a big run in the middle part of the race, shorten him back up,’ ” Donk said. “It was a good call on his part.”

Cancel rides Double Shot from post 2.

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Possetizzly, like Seven Lilies and Double Shot, would benefit from a strong pace. He rallied from four lengths off the pace to win a first-level statebred allowance going seven furlongs over a good Aqueduct main track at 36-1 on Feb. 5. In his previous start, on Nov. 14, he finished second behind Runningwscissors, who has come back to win two of his next three starts, including an open allowance here Sunday.

Pablo Morales rides Possetizzly from post 7 for Ralph D’Alessandro, another trainer enjoying a solid meet with limited runners.

The speed in the race figures to come from Steam Engine, who goes first off the claim for Antonio Arriaga, and Dark Money, first off the claim for trainer Karl Broberg.

South Africa, second in this condition the last two out, and Blindwillie McTell, who drops in to the lowest level of his career, complete the field.