Tempted, $70,977 pick six carryover top opening-day card

Friday is not going to be your typical Aqueduct opener. The main track has a new winterized surface with a limestone base. A second turf course has been installed over the former inner dirt track. And, there is an unusual pick six carryover of $70,977, which will be paid out even if nobody selects all the winners in the sequence.

Horseplayers will be paying close attention to how the main track plays. Will it be faster or slower than the old surface, and will there be an inside or outside bias? The same can be said for the new outer grass course, which will allow Aqueduct to run turf sprints.

The two-day carryover is the result of the Sunday closing-day card at Belmont being canceled due to weather conditions. There would have been a mandatory payout on the pool that day, which is why there will be one Friday.

The pick six sequence has three turf races, two over the long-existing course, which is now the inner turf, and a 6 1/2-furlong race over the outer grass. Race 3 also will be held over the newly installed course at a mile.

The feature race is the Grade 3, $150,000 Tempted, a one-turn mile for 2-year-old fillies. With a six-horse field, it has been carded as race 4, outside of the pick six, which is on races 5-10.

Navajo will be a strong favorite in the Tempted for trainer Tony Dutrow.

She finished well to be clearly second best going six furlongs in her Saratoga debut. Stretched out to a mile for her second start Oct. 1 at Belmont, she pulled away with authority to win by 3 1/4 lengths. She earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure that day, 12 points higher than her rivals have ever run.

“At Saratoga, we ran her sprinting but nobody among us thought she was a sprinter,” Dutrow said.

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Navajo, a daughter of Union Rags, did not immediately impress Dutrow but she has made great strides the past few months.

“In April and May, I thought Navajo was so very average,” Dutrow said. “It wasn’t until July that I thought she was better than average. In August, I was confident she was the better kind.”

Dutrow has been pleased with Navajo since her maiden victory.

“She ran very good and has taken another step forward from there,” he said.

Nik Juarez will take over aboard Navajo for John Velazquez, who will be at Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup.

Daisy, an eight-length debut winner over a sloppy track at Parx Racing for John Servis, will be the second betting choice. She will break from the rail under Kendrick Carmouche.

Lady Freedom is the only two-time winner in the field. She won a Gulfstream Park maiden race and then shipped to Churchill Downs, where she finished last of 12 in the Grade 2 Pocahontas. She then returned to Florida and won an optional-claiming race at Gulfstream Park West.

Previously trained by Rodolfo Garcia, she will race for trainer Jorge Abreu on Friday.

Trainer Gary Contessa has cross-entered Oldfashioned Style in the Tempted and as a main-track-only runner in the Chelsey Flower on turf Saturday. Dry weather is forecast.

Oldfashioned Style, who won a Saratoga maiden race in the second of her three starts, will wear blinkers for the first time.

* Equestris, the racetrack dining area, will remain open until the end of the Del Mar cards Friday and Saturday so that patrons can watch and wager on the Breeders' Cup races.