Week opens with $101K pick six carryover

Sunday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct was to feature a three-day carryover in the pick six topping $101,000, but racing was scrapped by NYRA officials because of high winds in the New York City area.

That big pick six jackpot now awaits horseplayers on Wednesday’s card, and to cash out they will have to navigate yet another tough series of races.

One of those tough races is the fifth, a high-priced optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up traveling six furlongs on the main track. The race is the second leg of the pick six, which begins with race 4 (post time, 1:47 p.m. Eastern) and runs through the final race on the nine-race card. First post is 12:20 p.m.

The field of seven for the fifth race is led by Life in Shambles, who is pegged at 8-5 on the morning line. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Life in Shambles reeled off three wins in a row over the summer, including a career-best performance with a Beyer Speed Figure of 102 in an optional-claiming sprint July 2 at Belmont. In his most recent start, Life in Shambles endured a bit of a tough trip as the favorite in an optional-claiming sprint Oct. 27 at Belmont. He settled for second to the front-running winner, Angry Moon, who is scheduled to start in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight on Thursday.

The second choice on the morning line in Wednesday’s race is Dannie’s Deceiver, who is dropping out of three straight graded stakes races while looking for his third win of 2016. Dannie’s Deceiver showed speed at 3 last year, but he has developed a closing style this year, which leaves him at the mercy of pace and racing luck.

Trainer David Jacobson has the pair of Eighty Three and Great Stuff entered to run. Eighty Three is returning from a layoff following a fourth-place finish in Gulfstream’s Grade 2 Smile Sprint on July 2. He hasn’t won a race since March 20, but his two starts prior to the Smile Sprint were both solid efforts with Beyers that would make him competitive Wednesday.

Great Stuff will be reunited with Javier Castellano, with whom he paired to win a race similar to this in his first start off the claim Oct. 19. Most recently, Great Stuff shipped to Parx Racing and finished fifth behind the sharp Trouble Kid, who ran away to win by more than 11 lengths with a Beyer of 104.

Classy Class will be making his second start off a 396-day layoff Wednesday. He finished behind Life in Shambles in fourth in that Oct. 27 optional claimer in his comeback race and may be ready to take a step forward.

Last year at 3, Classy Class ran in six graded stakes, with his best efforts third-place finishes in the Grade 3 Gotham and Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct.

The field is completed by Big Guy Ian and Alex the Terror, who is making his first start since March.