Saturday Horse Racing at the Big A: RT picks the Early Pick 3 at Aqueduct
Aqueduct Early Pick 3
Ozone Park forecasted to be sunny and in the mid 50’s
Race 1- 20K Claimers
3yo↑ fillies and mares racing one mile
With Excess Capacity scratching, #5 Daria’s Angel (7/5) looks much the best. Her record of 14/6-4-1 for $241K or $17.2K per race is superior to the rest and after scoring an 88 Equibase figure in her last, many prognosticators will predict a bounce. Do not count on that as she has proven last summer to come back with bigger figures than this. The one horse that can prove to be a menace to her is #2 Pecan Patty (9/5 as of this writing). As stated before, shippers from Parx tend to do awful everyplace else except for Aqueduct. Her workout of 11 days ago in :48 at Belmont signals her in shape and ready to go along with an Aqueduct record of 5/1-1-1 for $64K or $13k per race, makes her a must on this ticket. Taking 5-2
Race 2 - $40K Maiden Claimers
NY breds 3yo’s↑ going one mile on turf
There are three in this that I am going to take a shot with. #6 Bourbon Brown (12/1) who, after an unsuccessful two year old campaign versus open company in state stakes company, was given a four month rest. He was brought back to an open maiden claimer on February 26th on first Lasix where he set the pace early before tiring in the stretch. That was his first attempt on turf and scored an Equibase 74 number, the highest of this group. Today he'll get his second dose of Lasix and his second attempt at turf, where he is obviously better. This colt out of Big Brown will be the lone speed, so look for Reylu Gutierrez to slow the pace down and make it a 1 furlong race at the end. #5 Loulovestheriver (10/1) tried turf for the first time 2 weeks ago and he too was a whole new colt, scoring a 73 Equibase number. Nik Juarez retains the mount and expect to see them near the pace and coming on late. #3 Ghostmon (12/1) is a Group 1 breeze fig tested Ghostzapper colt, who has the perfect medium stride for this distance and surface. Coming off a state bred open $70K race, he's had a couple of workouts since that time, gets blinkers for the first time, second Lasix, and as always, never count RudyRod out. 6-3-5
Race 3 - $72K Allowance NW$X
State breds, three years old and up, going six furlongs on the outer turf.
Are you kidding me? #1 Dr. Blute (5/1) debuted at six furlongs on dirt and summarily dumped his foes by 5.75 lengths in 1:11.9 on a sloppy track and as we all know, mud runners make excellent turf racers. Putting up a 91 Equibase number that day and getting 2nd Lasix today, where we expect improvement from that number for both reasons of improvement in the second race and higher numbers expected on turf, will more than be enough to best the other eight horses in this race. For insurance, I am going to include four others in my ticket. #4 Bardolino (6/1) first Lasix, first out winner who summarily dispatched state bred open company in his two year old season 5 months ago. #7 Three Outlaws (8/1) shipper from Gulfstream and out of the Rob Atras barn, has faced winning horses and has always been a tough out. Into Mischief colt out of Mark Casse’s barn, #5 City Mischief (3/1) just broke his maiden after finally getting a chance to race on turf after two attempts which were taken off due to weather. #3 Big Wonder (8/1) is difficult to believe that he's 8 to one, given the fact that he's been super competitive in a starter allowance, state bred allowance, and a G3 race. He's a 5 year old horse who has already raced 33 times and only won two, yet given his seasoning, he's difficult to exclude today. 1-4-7-5-3 $30 total