Small fields for Wednesday features

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The highlights of Wednesday’s nine-race card are Race 2, a first-level optional $75,000 claimer for 3-year-olds at a mile and 40 yards, and Race 6, a third-level optional $62,500 claimer for 4-year-olds and up at seven furlongs.

In Race 2, Uncle Jerry looms as a short-priced favorite for jockey Fernando De La Cruz and trainer Eoin Harty in a field of six. The Uncle Mo colt has turned in consecutive bullet workouts here, including a half-mile in 46.80 seconds Dec. 27. After shedding blinkers last out and finishing last in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs, he’ll put the blinkers back on Wednesday.

Uncle Jerry has by far the highest Beyer Speed Figure in this field, an 81 for a second-place finish in a rich first-level allowance route at Keeneland in October.

Race 6 also drew a field of six and features Ghost Hunter going for the top local team of jockey Antonio Gallardo and trainer Jamie Ness. Last out Dec. 5, Ghost Hunter rallied strongly to be third, beaten three-quarters of a length, in the Claiming Crown Emerald Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on a sloppy Gulfstream Park track.