Sweet Luca looks to overcome speed bias in Cammack

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – In the third start of his summer form cycle last year, Sweet Luca became the only horse in 2014 to defeat champion sprinter Work All Week, handing him a 1 1/4-length defeat in the Addison Cammack Stakes for Illinois-bred sprinters. Three starts into his summer 2015 form cycle, Sweet Luca returns looking to repeat in the $50,000 Cammack, but this year he might face an obstacle even more formidable than Work All Week – a prevailing Polytrack bias that would work against his running style.

In June, Arlington’s main track moderately favored speed horses and, to a lesser extent, inside pressers and stalkers in one-turn races. Going two turns on Polytrack, anything not on the early lead need not have applied. During the first two racing weeks of July, the inside and speed trend eased, but it has returned with a vengeance recently, and heading into this week’s racing at Arlington, anyone handicapping the track is looking for horses who can make the front.

That’s not Sweet Luca, a late-running sprinter whose post position, No. 7, will make it tough for jockey Eddie Perez to find what has been the faster going near the fence. But if that sort of trip can be worked out, or the bias recedes by Saturday, Sweet Luca, coming off a much-improved second outing of the year, can absolutely win the Cammack again.

“The way the track’s been playing, nothing but speed, that’s not something I can control, so I’m not going to worry about it,” said trainer Chris Block. “This is the race we’ve been targeting since we gave him a rest, and I assume he’ll run his race Saturday.”

Who leads early isn’t clear. The good 3-year-old Recount drew the rail and has pace. Recount makes his first start since a close second May 1 in a $75,000 Prairie Meadows stakes. In April, he easily won the Land of Lincoln for Illinois-bred 3-year-old sprinters at Hawthorne, and in his last start at 2, he captured the Arlington-Washington Futurity.

Recount has natural speed and is not speed-crazy, but he could wind up battling early with the outside-drawn Rivzinthehouse. Rivzinthehouse has alternated between allowance and claiming races but loves Arlington’s Polytrack, over which he has won four of six starts, and he has noted speed rider E.T. Baird in the irons.

“I think I’ve got the faster horse. I think he can cross and clear, but I don’t know if I can win it,” said trainer Larry Rivelli.

Rivelli, though, absolutely has the horse to beat in the Cammack’s sister stakes Saturday, the $50,000 Isaac Murphy for Illinois-bred older filly sprinters. Richies Sweetheart is listed at 7-5 on the morning line but will go off a shorter price than that since Rivelli said he will scratch Dreamofjean E., the 3-1 second choice. That leaves Richies Sweetheart with the inside draw and the speed to scoot clear in the early going – the way race after race has been won here lately.

“She’s fast, and I think she’ll be in front pretty easy,” Rivelli said. “She’s better on turf, but she’s good enough on the Poly.”

The one concern regarding Richies Sweetheart is that it was just two weeks ago that she ran a game race in winning the $78,000 Brandywine Stakes over five furlongs on Indiana Grand’s turf. Pressed hard throughout, Richies Sweetheart gutted out a win, and her many backers must hope that the effort expended there has not left Richies Sweetheart drained for the Isaac Murphy. Summer Again has the most appeal as an alternative to the heavy chalk.