Winit gets restarted as gelding in allowance

It’s not an easy decision to geld a son of Tapit, the superstar stallion whose progeny often have residual value just by having him in their pedigree.

Trainer John Kimmel said it took some convincing of owner Mandy Pope to geld Winit, who makes his first start since undergoing that change in Thursday’s second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming feature as the Aqueduct fall meet gets under way.

Other than a reset of statistics, little will change from the Belmont at the Big A meet that concluded Sunday.

There will be 31 days of racing, Thursdays through Sundays with turf racing scheduled to continue through Nov. 17, weather permitting.

A total of 33 stakes, 10 of which are graded, worth $6.385 million, will be offered between Thursday and Dec. 31. The Dec. 2 card features four graded events, topped by the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile. The Remsen and Demoiselle, Grade 2 stakes for juvenile males and juvenile fillies, are part of that card.

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NYRA has scheduled 12 turf stakes at the meet, with the Grade 2, $300,000 Red Smith (Nov.11) and Grade 3, $300,000 Long Island (Nov. 12) topping the bill.

First post daily is 12:20 p.m. for nine-race cards and 12:50 p.m. for eight-race programs. The occasional 10-race card will begin at 11:50 a.m.

There are nine races scheduled for Thursday, with the allowance/optional claimer at one mile going as the eighth.

Winit finished second in this condition in the slop in January and fourth in February before going to the sidelines.

“He was a tough customer last year. He was a horse that was tough to be around – typical Tapit colt – yelling at horses all the time and he was mostly unfocused,” Kimmel said. “He was trying to lean out sometimes, had a lot of bad colt-type behaviors.

“After pleading with Mandy, I said ‘This will be a much better horse as a gelding,’ ” Kimmel added. “We sent him down there to freshen him up. It took them a couple of months before they acquiesced to cutting him.”

Winit sports a flashy work tab for his return, four consecutive bullet drills since the beginning of October.

“I think it’s really helped him,” Kimmel said. “He’s sure been breezing like a nice horse. His breezes are all in hand.”

Kendrick Carmouche will ride Winit from the outside post in this 10-horse field.

Bourbon Calling beat Winit by a neck in this condition Jan. 6 and then won two straight third-level allowance/optional-claiming races going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct. He is winless in five starts since.

Adero, a Parx Racing shipper trained by John Servis, won an off-the-turf allowance Oct. 4 at Delaware, his fifth win from nine career starts. One of those wins came in a starter allowance here in March, which he won by 10 3/4 lengths.

Full Screen made his first start on dirt in this condition Oct. 1 at Aqueduct and ran a strong second behind the front-running Swiftsure. Two horses from that race have already come back to win.

No Salt, Synthesis, I Am the Law, Alternate Reality, Portos, and Castle Chaos complete the field.

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