Winter weather may impact Friday card

The nine-race Friday card at Aqueduct is topped by a first-level New York-bred optional-claiming race for fillies and mares and includes a first-level allowance turf sprint and four maiden races. The trouble is, autumn has suddenly started to look like the beginning of an early winter and four of the day’s races are scheduled for turf.

Aqueduct was off the grass Wednesday, and the first hard freeze of the season was expected Thursday morning. There is the possibility of sleet and ice Thursday afternoon with rain continuing into Friday morning.

The eighth-race optional claimer for statebreds will be run at a mile over the main track. Puffery, Out of Orbit, and Peril are the main players in the eight-horse field. Peril has the most upside and will be the longest price of the three.

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Puffery, trained by Mark Hennig, has finished third three times and second once in her last four starts versus allowance company. The daughter of Flatter has put together a 10-1-2-4 record but has a good chance to pad her résumé in this easier spot.

Out of Orbit comes into the race with a similar record of 12-1-3-3 and second- or third-place finishes in five of her last six for Phil Serpe.

Peril rallied from far back to win a statebred maiden race over turf at Belmont in June and returned in July to finish third over yielding ground against allowance rivals.

Peril didn’t breeze for six weeks after that race but has a steady work tab since Sept. 9. This will be her dirt debut.

The most likely winner on the card is Domain in race 3. Shug McGaughey drops the 3-year-old gelded son of Orb from straight maiden company into a $40,000 maiden claimer. He will be singled on many early pick four and pick five tickets.