Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Gulfy should take to routing on dirt

Aqueduct | Race 5 | Post Time 2:10 p.m. (ET)

There figures to be plenty of attention focused on first-time starter Ottinho (#6), a half-brother to Horse of the Year and top sire Gun Runner and a full brother to graded stakes winner Pretty Ana. A couple of his workouts match Hadrian's Wall, who finished a good third in his recent debut with an 80 Beyer. It appears that Chad Brown has some talented route-meant 2-year-olds that he's finally unveiling this fall, and it wouldn't be a surprise if this was one of them. I just don't need a horse debuting at a mile at a short price.

Among the alternatives with experience, I'm interested in both horses coming out of the Epic Summer maiden race. Fightforallegiance (#4) is more immediately appealing as a Linda Rice second-time starter. He's bred to be more of a sprinter, but he did stay on well late in the debut despite lugging in through the stretch. He was green that day, and should be more professional this time.

Out of that race, I'm more inclined to bet Gulfy (#7), who hit the wire with that foe last time. This horse got a wide trip and did little running in his turf debut, but he's clearly more of a dirt horse. He was off slowly last time and had to be used to rush up into a stalking position inside. He struggled to hold that position on the turn but never gave up, running on well through the wire despite getting put in tight quarters late. He looks like one that wants the mile on dirt, and he can attain more forward position with a better break.