OZONE PARK, N.Y. – As there was no shortage of horsemen willing to enter against Hansen in Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, there likely will be no shortage of horseplayers seeking to play against last year’s 2-year-old male champion in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds over the inner track.
But just as Hansen has some questions to answer coming off his first career defeat in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, his 12 challengers have as many – if not more – questions to answer.
Graham Motion brought a horse to Turfway Park nearly a year ago to see whether he fit in the Kentucky Derby scheme. The answers he got were affirmative, even in May, when Animal Kingdom used a victory in the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes as a springboard to become the latest Derby winner.
Motion seems to have lesser ambitions this March with a colt named State of Play, whose seventh-place finish in the Sam F. Davis Stakes four weeks ago would hardly recommend him as a Derby prospect.
Trainer Graham Motion had two horses he was considering for Saturday's Gotham at Aqueduct, but ultimately did not enter either one.
Earlier in the week, Motion thought about running Cop a Tude, who is 2 for 2, and Went the Day Well, a New York-bred maiden.
Though Cop a Tude won twice at Laurel, Motion thought running him in a full field in the Gotham would be “throwing him to the wolves.” Instead, Motion plans to run him in the Private Terms on March 17 at Laurel Park.
He’s got a lovely wife and two young sons, and a professional career that has brought him the last two Eclipse Awards as champion jockey, a couple of Breeders’ Cup victories, and, this past week, the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. What Ramon Dominguez doesn’t have, yet, is a win in a Triple Crown race. Not the Kentucky Derby, nor the Preakness, nor the Belmont.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Hansen, last year’s 2-year-old champion, drew post 12 in a field of 13 3-year-olds entered to run in Saturday’s Grade 3, $400,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
The 13 entries are believed to be the largest for a single running of the Gotham, which was first run in 1953. The race was split three times, the last being in 1983. In 1994, there was a 12-horse field and Irgun won the race from post 11.
Mike Maker, the trainer of Hansen, admitted that post 12 was a concern but added “what can you do?”
This is precisely the time of year when the importance of first-level, two-turn allowances for 3-year-olds becomes magnified, most notably at a major track such as Fair Grounds. A proverbial jump off the television screen tends to earn an up-high mention in the “up-and-coming” or “sleeper” category for the Kentucky Derby, just below the confirmed candidates.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six new horses are in the lineup of 23 separately listed wagering interests in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens its three-day run Friday at noon Eastern.
Mark Valeski nearly aced his stakes and two-turn debut Saturday in the Risen Star, losing by a nose to El Padrino, but to trainer Larry Jones, that performance could wind up being a mere point of departure.
“I really do think he can improve,” Jones said Tuesday. “I do know when he was ready to go over to race Saturday, I looked at him and I thought, ‘Boy you’re still fat!’ In my opinion this race will tighten him up. I don’t think he’s peaked by any means.”
Algorithms will have surgery for a fractured splint bone in his right front leg and will miss the Triple Crown, trainer Todd Pletcher and co-owner Jack Wolf said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
The news ended a whirlwind 48-hour period for Algorithms, who on Sunday was scheduled to run in the Fountain of Youth Stakes but was scratched that morning from the race because of a problem with the splint. Subsequent radiographs revealed the extent of the damage.
