Tariff Mindset eyes Peter Pan; Colloquial out of Tom Fool
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tariff Mindset overcame a taxing trip to win his debut going one mile at Aqueduct last Saturday, and his connections are thinking he should get better going longer.
Tariff Mindset, a son of Tiz the Law, got away poorly in Saturday’s fifth race. He was climbing early over a sealed, muddy main track and was as far back as 11 lengths off the early pace.
Under Flavien Prat, it took Tariff Mindset almost a quarter-mile to level off, but when he did, he came with a sustained, wide rally and was able to get up by nose over longshot and three-time starter Print. Tariff Mindset covered a mile in 1:40.37 and earned a 64 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I didn’t like the way he fell behind,” said trainer Chad Brown, who had shipped Tariff Mindset and fourth-place finisher Pauillac up from Payson Park in Florida. “I was really disappointed for the majority of the race because I quite liked the horse when I shipped him up there. The way it ended up, it was a good learning experience for him. He definitely needs to get out of the gate better. His gate works were good, so I’m not sure what that was about.”
Brown said if he could find a bridge race beforehand, he would think about the Peter Pan at Aqueduct on May 9 as a potential stepping-stone to the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 6.
“That guy has bigger and better things ahead going around two turns,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, Colloquial, who had not raced since winning the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland last April, was under consideration for Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Tom Fool Stakes before he developed a temperature, trainer George Weaver said.
“It was a little bit of a push to make it. It looked like it was going to be a short field, but he was running a little bit of a [fever] on Friday afternoon, so we decided to hold back and try not to force it,” Weaver said.
Weaver said he hopes to find something in March for Colloquial’s return.
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