Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Slight stretch-out should suit Divine Armor
Aqueduct | Race 7 | Post Time 3:55 p.m. (ET)
I don’t have any major knocks against Trafalgar (#3), who seems like the horse to beat for Linda Rice. He has already had a few chances at this level and hasn’t yet won since getting claimed by this barn last October. However, he’s run well in each outing for Linda Rice and has had legitimate excuses for those losses. Six furlongs were simply too short for him two back, and that was also a race that didn’t feature much pace for him. Then last time he just caught a tough field in an unusually fast race for the level. He was finishing best of all at the end but couldn’t quite get there. He seems like a deserving favorite, but he can be somewhat pace dependent and it’s not as if there’s a ton of speed in here.
The likely speed is Dr. Blute (#9), the other horse I would expect to take a significant amount of money in this spot. However, he has some major questions to answer as he returns from an extended layoff. This horse really improved off the trainer switch to Saffie Joseph back in 2022, running a series of races that would make him pretty tough in this spot. He disappointed when last seen in the Alex M. Robb, but that race featured an extremely fast pace that didn’t suit him. Chad Brown does well off layoffs, but I still wouldn’t want to take any kind of short price on this horse.
At a bigger price, I'd be a little more interested in using Alternate Reality (#7) underneath. He's been in great form and continued to run well off the claim for new connections last time. Now he gets a significant rider upgrade to Rafael Hernandez.
My top pick is Divine Armor (#5). David Jacobson can be tough to read, but you will generally get paid if you can figure out when his horses might be sitting on good efforts. This gelding put in a strong late rally first time out for this barn back in November, closing well against a decent field for the level. He did subsequently stretch out to a mile in November, and he didn’t run as poorly as it might look. Breaking from the rail he got shuffled back to last, had to angle outside, and just couldn’t make up ground in a race dominated up front. He had previously been a one-mile specialist in Southern California, and he was capable of showing better tactical speed in those races, especially when he was more successful. His recent results have been mixed, but he hasn’t gotten ideal trips on a few occasions. Trevor McCarthy tried to do the right thing going to the rail last time on a track that was favoring inside runners, but the plan backfired as this horse had trouble gaining momentum in traffic. I think he’s better than that, and I like that Jacobson’s go-to rider Isaac Castillo is getting back aboard.