Union Strike may be vulnerable in Chicago Handicap

The raw cognitive dissonance has ended, but the Chicago Handicap still is a brain-scrambler of a race.

Run since 1986 at Arlington Park, the Chicago Handicap ended up at Arlington’s quasi-sister track, Churchill Downs, last year. That made little sense, but while the Chicago is back in Chicagoland Saturday, the Grade 3, $100,000 race over seven furlongs for older fillies and mares still figures to leave many handicappers scratching their heads.

A field of 13 was entered and if you want to take 3-1 odds on morning-line favorite Union Strike, go right ahead. That’s a lousy price on a 120-pound starting highweight racing for the first time since January and just the second time in more than a year, and who has never before started on a synthetic surface. There are other, more appealing options, though Union Strike, were she able to reprise her career-best form, would stand as good a chance as any of them.

The Chicago is carded as race 8 with a scheduled post time of 5:11 Central.

KEY CONTENDERS

Princess La Quinta, by Quality Road
Last 3 Beyers: 88-83-78

◗ She’s raced five times over Arlington Polytrack and won four of those starts, her only defeat a fifth-place finish when she ran as a second-time-starting maiden in the 2016 Arlington-Washington Lassie.

◗ Comes off a good win in the Grade 3 Arlington Matron on May 19, a race contested around two turns at 1 1/8 miles. Princess La Quinta on Saturday cuts back to one turn for the first time since the Lassie.

“For me it’s been a concern since we thought about running her in the race,” said trainer and part-owner Jim Gulick. “But as the day grows nearer, I feel less and less concerned. She’s sharp and she needs to run. I don’t look for it to be an excuse.”

◗ Sophie Doyle takes the mount with regular rider Carlos Marquez Jr. booked to ride at Canterbury.

One Liz, by Kitalpha
Last 3 Beyers: 83-83-59

◗ Another Arlington Polytrack lover, with five wins and a second from seven starts over the surface.

◗ Trainer Wayne Catalano’s main concern is a busy racing schedule: One Liz made her 2018 debut winning a May 25 Arlington allowance race, then gave chase to a loose leader finishing second in the Mike Spellman Memorial on June 9.

“Two weeks and two weeks,” Catalano said. “She’s run pretty hard, but she performs well over the surface. This is her last year racing, so we’re taking a shot at the Grade 3.”

Union Strike, by Union Rags
Last 3 Beyers: 82-67-88

◗ Won the Santa Paula and just missed in the Grade 3 Eight Belles in the spring of 2017, but badly grabbed a quarter stumbling at the start of the Acorn Stakes, costing her several months.

“She took a quarter of her foot off,” owner-trainer Mick Ruis said. “It took about eight months to get that to grow back. We got her really good now. We’ve got some glue-on [shoes] on her now and have trained her in those the last four or five months.”

Natural Wonder, by Summer Bird
Last 3 Beyers: 85-84-79

◗ Lightly raced 6-year-old shows her best on synthetic surfaces and, if she gets pace help, will have a chance at a price.