Unified, King Kranz renew acquaintances in Carter

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Unified and King Kranz ran one-two in the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes on the undercard of the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct last April. On Saturday, Unified and King Kranz will meet again when the two head a nine-horse field entered in the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter, which will immediately precede the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Unified drew post 8, while King Kranz will break from post 5 in the seven-furlong Carter, which is the first Grade 1 to be run in New York this year.

Unified, laid up last June after finishing fifth in the Grade 3 Pegasus at Monmouth Park, came off the bench with a solid performance, winning the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint on Feb. 25. The horse he beat by a neck, Mind Your Biscuits, came back to win the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan two weeks ago.

“You never know when a horse throws a race like he did in Jersey if they’re ever going to be the same,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said of the Pegasus. “But we were pretty confident because he trained really good the week leading up to the race.”

Unified, a son of Candy Ride, has continued to train well. He worked four furlongs in 47.60 seconds on Monday at Belmont Park. It was the second-fastest of 159 works at the distance over the training track.

Jose Ortiz, the regular rider of Unified, will be at Keeneland on Saturday, so Javier Castellano has picked up the mount. Unified is the highweight at 120 pounds.

Tommy Macho, the winner of the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope in January, will try seven furlongs for the first time in the Carter. He will break from post 2 under Luis Saez.

Also entered were All Star Red, Sassicaia, Awesome Banner, Spartiatis, Green Gratto, and Ocean Knight.