Worth a Shot brings four-race win streak off long layoff; $45,509 pick six carryover awaits
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Worth a Shot brings a four-race winning streak and some questions into Thursday’s second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming turf feature at Aqueduct. This 1 1/16-mile turf race drew an overflow field and is part of a pick six sequence that has a $45,509 carryover after the wager went unhit Sunday.
Worth a Shot, a 6-year-old New York-bred by English Channel, began his winning streak in October 2019 at Belmont Park, but has made just two starts in 892 days. In two starts since going from Linda Rice to Horacio De Paz, Worth a Shot won a statebred allowance at Belmont in June 2020 and an open-company allowance in June 2021.
“Every time he runs, a week or two later he has some sort of setback, then turf comes to an end and there’s no point bringing him back,” said De Paz, who noted Worth a Shot had a pelvis injury after his race last June. “We gave him extra time, he’s been training well and doing well. Looking forward to getting him started and then putting him in bubble wrap and make at least one more start with him.”
In his three races at a mile or beyond, Worth a Shot has been on or near the pace. The winners of five of the first seven turf races run here this meet were on or near the pace.
“The way the turf was playing last weekend it suits his style,” said De Paz, who has Jorge Vargas to ride from post 9.
This undoubtedly is the toughest field Worth a Shot has faced, with several horses dropping out of stakes races and all with more recency than him.
Kuramata, trained by Chad Brown, has made only two starts since he won a first-level allowance here a year ago. Last May, he finished last of eight in the Grade 2 Dinner Party at Pimlico, a course he didn’t appear to look comfortable on. In January at Tampa, he had a lot of trouble early and was out of position, made a belated bid, albeit on the wrong lead, and finished fourth.
Of the early traffic trouble, Brown said Kuramata “got discouraged. Draw a line through it. Training really well.”
Kuramata is coupled with Flop Shot, who is one deep on the also-eligible list.
Kygo, trained by Mike Maker, finished three-quarters of a length behind Kuramata in that same Tampa allowance. He came back to finish 10th in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida, a race where he steadied entering the first turn and never got involved after that.
Highland Chief is a 5-year-old Irish-bred making his first start since June when he was fifth of six in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom. Now in the barn of Graham Motion, Highland Chief has been breezing since mid-January and has nine works of five furlongs or farther on the all-weather surface at Fair Hill.
Ocala Dream and Space Launch are both coming off similar layoffs in their seasonal debuts for trainers Tom Morley and Christophe Clement, respectively, but both have outside draws.