Tenderfoot, Chestertown throw down in Sunday allowance

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two stakes-caliber allowance races highlight Sunday’s eight-race Aqueduct card.

In race 3, the up-and-coming Tenderfoot takes on the New York-bred stakes winner Chestertown in a second-level allowance race going a mile.

Since being claimed by Charlton Baker for $40,000 last July, Tenderfoot has won 3 of 5 starts. He recorded three consecutive victories from Oct. 29 through Jan. 1, with two of those wins coming over wet tracks. Rain is in the forecast for Sunday.

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Following a blowout victory in a first-level allowance on New Year’s Day and a subsequent strong workout, Tenderfoot earned his way into the Jazil Stakes going 1 1/8 miles around two turns on Jan. 23. He finished second behind Mr. Buff, who was winning his 10th stakes race and who was expected to be an odds-on favorite in Saturday’s Stymie Stakes.

Cutting back to a mile, the likelihood of him being the primary speed, and the prospect of a wet track should give Tenderfoot an advantage over Chestertown, who has won three of his last four starts.

Chestertown, a $2 million son of Grade 1 winners Tapit and Artemis Agrotera, won a second-level New York-bred allowance going a one-turn mile on Dec. 6. On the same day Tenderfoot finished second in the Jazil, Chestertown won an open-company first-level allowance race going 1 1/8 miles.

Tenderfoot and Chestertown are the only two members of this field who are racing under the allowance condition. Danny California, winner of the Miner’s Mark Stakes going 1 1/2 miles at Belmont last September, Zoomer, Fed Funds, and Empty Tomb are all eligible to be claimed for the $62,500 tag.

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Race 7 is a multi-conditioned allowance that features the 6-year-old mare Letmetakethiscall taking on males going seven furlongs.

Letmetakethiscall, a winner of three consecutive six-furlong races, was being pointed to the Broadway Stakes on Feb. 13, but that race failed to draw enough entries to be carded. She was entered in an allowance on Feb. 18, but that card was canceled due to snow and also was not brought back.

“I think you’re better off running,” trainer James Ferraro said. “Keep training on these training tracks in the morning, it’s not ideal all the time in the winter.”

Ferraro noted that the day he claimed Letmetakethiscall for $40,000 last August at Saratoga, the race was run at seven furlongs over a sloppy track.

“She likes a muddy track,” Ferraro said.

The wildcard in the field is Honor Up, who won two New York-bred stakes in early 2019, but tailed off and hasn’t run since finishing seventh in the Commentator Stakes last June. He does show a series of bullet works for his return for Michelle Nevin.

Sunny Ridge, a multiple stakes-winning earner of $1.4 million, is entered for the optional $80,000 claiming price. He came off a year layoff to run fourth in this same condition Feb. 4, a race in which Tatweej ran the fastest mile to that point of the winter meet.

Mihos, Mad Munnys, T Loves a Fight, and Wicked Trick also are in this field.