Winters Lion has shot at a price in Woodhaven Stakes
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Winters Lion shows an ugly-looking running line from his last effort, which may only serve to make him a value play in Saturday’s $100,000 Woodhaven Stakes for 3-year-olds going a mile on turf at Aqueduct.
Winters Lion finished next-to-last in the Black Gold Stakes at Fair Grounds on March 4. Trainer Joe Sharp is drawing a line through that non-effort.
“You could tell from the beginning he didn’t like it,” Sharp said of the Fair Grounds turf course, which had its issues all meet long.
In his start prior to that, Winters Lion finished a respectable third in the Texas Turf Mile behind Andthewinneris and Private Creed.
“That race ended up being legit,” Sharp said. “Those were two solid horses. I think we’ve got a big shot.”
Sharp has Winters Lion entered as a main-track-only entrant in an allowance Friday at Keeneland, but said Thursday that Winters Lion would run in New York.
Sharp wouldn’t mind if the Aqueduct turf course has some give in it, but the rain forecast for this area Saturday is not expected until after the races, or at least after the Woodhaven, which is carded as the third on the nine-race program.
Winters Lion, an Oklahoma-bred son of Accelerate, appears to have some speed, and this six-horse field does seem to be lacking in that department. Kendrick Carmouche rides Winters Lion from post 2.
Regal Kingdom also spent the winter in New Orleans, winning two consecutive Louisiana-bred races on turf. He was trained by Ron Faucheux, who after winning the Fair Grounds meet title retired to become a jockey’s agent.
Regal Kingdom was transferred to Graham Motion, who trained Regal Kingdom’s sire, Animal Kingdom, to win the 2011 Kentucky Derby. Motion said he wasn’t originally planning on running Regal Kingdom in this race, but was attracted by the small field that lacked a standout.
“It might be a big step for him, but he’s going to have to run in a stakes,” Motion said. “He seems like a nice horse going in the right direction.”
Inflation Nation makes his 3-year-old debut after going 1 for 4 as a 2-year-old. He never has raced farther than six furlongs. Trainer Christophe Clement said he was looking to run him in a six-furlong allowance race that didn’t fill.
“I don’t know if he’ll stay the mile,” Clement said.
Trainer Chad Brown sends out the uncoupled entry of Belouni and Neural Network. Belouni won two races at Vichy in France last year. In his only start in the U.S. and for Brown, Belouni finished seventh, beaten three lengths with some trouble, in the Colonel Liam Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 4.
Neural Network, a New York-bred son of Cloud Computing, is making his turf debut after three starts on dirt. Most recently, he was elevated to first in the Gander Stakes after Maker’s Candy was disqualified from first for interfering with Neural Network.
High Strike, who has made all first five of his starts at Penn National, is making his turf debut and first start for trainer Chris Englehart.
NYSS Times Square
After an unsuccessful bid to make the Kentucky Derby, General Banker will cut back in distance and will be back among friends when he runs in the $200,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Series. The Times Square is for the progeny of nominated stallions who stand in New York. All eight in the field were bred in New York.
General Banker, one of three progeny of the stallion Central Banker in the race, won the $500,000 Great White Way division of the NYSS in December. That race was at seven furlongs, this one is 6 1/2 furlongs.
General Banker has faced open company four times, with third-place finishes in the Jerome, Withers, and Gotham before a 10th-place finish in the Wood Memorial on April 8 dashed any hopes of making the Derby.
While General Banker was clearly a longshot in the Wood, any chance he had was eliminated in the first turn when a bottleneck occurred and he was one of the horses that took the worst of it.
“The deciding factor to run here was he came out of the Wood good and the race looked kind of weak,” trainer Jimmy Ferraro said.
General Banker should benefit from the likelihood of a lively pace, with front-runners East Coast Girl and Kerness drawn in posts 1 and 2. Kerness has won three straight and is trained at Parx by Jamie Ness.
Dr. Kraft is another who may appreciate some pace. Though Dr. Kraft’s lone victory came going 6 1/2 furlongs, trainer Chris Englehart seems to like him going a little longer.
Lifetime of Chance won a maiden race by 16 lengths last out, earning a 91 Beyer Speed Figure. He has since been transferred by his owner, D. J. Stable, from Linda Rice to Mark Casse.
Bank Frenzy, trained by Lisa Lewis, is making his first start in restricted company. Ten Cent Town is coming off a maiden win for trainer William Morey. Coach Pitino is a first-time starter who will be saddled by Jorge Delgado.
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