REVVED UP
Trainer: Shug McGaughey
Last race: April 15, 4th
Finish: 3rd by 3
Beyer: 76
This Phipps Stable homebred added Lasix for his seasonal debut and rallied wide with a good late run after trailing through the opening stages of a maiden turf route, earning a new top Beyer Speed Figure.

Saturday, April 16

Lexington - Ben Ali (race 7)

COMMENT: Eagle, coming off a couple good graded stakes tries at the Fair Grounds, ran his Keeneland record to 3 for 3 and notched his first graded stakes win. He bided his time early while saving ground, steadily advanced, shifted out into the lane, reeled in pacesetter Noble Bird, and edged away late. Noble Bird looked much more on point than he did in his first start of the year.

WHYAGOTTOBETHATWAY

Trainer: Robert Smith

Last race: April 16, 10^th

Finish: 2^nd by three-quarters

Beyer: 60

We’ll take a small shot at the pick five at Aqueduct, essentially looking to get alive to our single in the final leg with a $50 caveman ticket.

RACE 1 – Union River (1) did not have Lasix for his first and only turf race as a second-out maiden; he has been in the money eight straight on dirt. Crafty Colonel (8) has been vastly improved since blinkers came on; DRF Formulator’s incremental pace feature shows he ran the last quarter-mile in 22.51 seconds to beat maidens last out.

Except for maybe using ULTRA ARUMBA and QUIET BUSINESS as live longshots in a wide-open race 3, I’ll be taking a pass on what I thought was a fairly inscrutable opening portion of this nine-race Sunday card at Keeneland and focus on getting Graham Motion another winner with JELLICLE BALL in race 7.

With heavy favorites who look hard to beat in race 4 (Cloontia) and race 5 (Bustin the Bank) – races that also happen to be the last two legs in the pick five and early pick four – I’m focusing my attention Saturday at Aqueduct on the second half of the card, specifically races 6 and 9.

Race 6

Last Saturday’s Wood Memorial came up ridiculously slow, 1:52.92 for the 1 1/8 miles on the muddy track. Were the horses really that bad, or was there another explanation?

In an effort to help handicappers better understand how to apply Daily Racing Form’s newest handicapping tool, some of the Race Shape symbols have been changed.

WILD ABOUT DEB
Trainer: Phil D’Amato
Last race: April 9, 1st
Finish: 1st by 6
Beyer: 86
This was an impressive route win by a late-developing maiden 3-year-old in just his second start. Stalked the pace inside, angled out, and romped while “ridden out.” Up the ladder.

GOING FOR BROKE
Trainer: Chad Brown
Last race: April 10, 5th
Finish: 2nd by 3
Beyer: 58
Three-year-old Blame filly was nine lengths out of it after the opening quarter and rallied despite lugging in a bit greenly through the stretch as the 5-4 favorite first time out.