Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Max Foster’s speed gives him an advantage
Aqueduct | Race 9 | Post Time 4:08 p.m. (ET)
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I’m not thrilled with the horses who figure to take the most money in this wide-open maiden claimer. Nobilis (#6) has run plenty of races that should put him in the winner’s circle against a field like this, but his form seems to be heading in the wrong direction as he slides down the class ladder. He had some trouble maintaining early position in his races when he returned from a layoff this spring, and those issues persisted into the summer, even with a blinker addition two back at Saratoga. Mark Hennig dropped him in for a tag off the layoff last time, but the result was even worse, as he got shuffled back early and could never recover. Perhaps stretching out to a mile allows him to get better forward position, but I’m skeptical that he can rebound.
Runandscore (#3) also makes his second start for a tag after dropping in for $20k and getting claimed two back. He ran a decent race that day, but didn’t have much of an excuse to lose against a pretty soft field. He tried a tougher field of maiden special weight foes off the claim for Michael Pino at Parx last time, and now drops back down. He’s another who isn’t proven at this distance, and I didn’t want to settle for a short price here, either.
My top pick is Max Foster (#2). He’s another who has never gone this far, but he’s certainly bred to handle route distances. He’s by 14% dirt route sire Palace Malice, and the dam handled route distances. He was entered to debut at 7 furlongs, so the connections clearly thought he wanted to go longer at some point. He didn’t even run that badly in that Saratoga start behind a few horses who subsequently improved. Since then he maintained decent form through the winter, and twice placed at this track when dropped into maiden claiming company. He returned from a lengthy layoff this season at Finger Lakes, showing speed and fading each time at short prices. However, now he’s dropping back into the maiden claiming ranks while stretching out, and he projects to get clear of this field early with the apprentice aboard. That should make him especially dangerous, since few of his rivals have shown much willingness to pass horses in the stretch.