Chelsea Durand Photo

Aqueduct Racetrack Notes 3.4.18

by NYRA Press Office

• Highway Star gears up for 2018 debut in Heavenly Prize Invitational
• Firenze Fire strong in company for final breeze ahead of G3 Gotham
• Registration now open for Gotham Handicapping Challenge
• Fields coming together for Gotham Day stakes

Multiple graded-stakes winner Highway Star put in her final breeze on Sunday morning before making her 2018 debut in Saturday’s $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

The 5-year-old Girolamo mare went four furlongs in 48.89 seconds on the Belmont Park training track in what trainer Rodrigo Ubillo described as a solid work before making her first start since finishing second in the Grade 3 Go for Wand Handicap on December 2 at the Big A.

“She’s doing great, she’s always happy and feeling good, so we’re excited to see her out there,” Ubillo said. “This morning, we went a comfortable half [mile], it was just something very easy for her. We don’t want to put too much pressure on her. She’s fully ready, so we’re hoping for something similar to last year. But she’s doing great.” 

Highway Star is coming off a 2017 campaign in which she won three graded stakes - over different distances - and finished second in two others. She captured the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap, contested at seven furlongs, by a half-length over Indulgent on April 9 at Aqueduct and earned a personal-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure for winning the Grade 2 Ruffian, at the Heavenly Prize distance of one mile, on May 13 at Belmont. After running third behind notables Paid Up Subscriber and Songbird in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on Belmont Stakes Day, June 10, Highway Star finished second, by a head, to By the Moon in the Grade 1 Ballerina on August 26 at Saratoga Race Course. 

Returning to Belmont, Highway Star rallied to beat Carina Mia by a neck in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom at 6 ½ furlongs before running 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on November 4 at Del Mar. Returning to a mile, she earned an 87 Beyer in the Go for Wand to conclude her impressive 4-year-old campaign. 

“She’s won over different distances, so I think anything between seven [furlongs] and a mile, she can handle, and she’ll have no problem,” Ubillo said. “She’s a fun horse to train. In the mornings, there’s something new, in a good way. Every time we ask her to do something different, she’s willing.” 

Jockey Joe Rocco, Jr. will have the call aboard Highway Star for the first time. 

“We’ve had success with him, so I’m positive,” Ubillo said. “We’ll take it as it comes. She’s a smart horse. She puts herself in the race. If they go too fast, she’ll stay a little back, or if they go slow, she’ll get there. I’ll leave it up to her.”

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Mr. Amore Stable's homebred Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire turned in his final work on a windy Sunday morning at Belmont Park for Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham for Kentucky Derby hopefuls at a mile at Aqueduct.

The Jason Servis trainee took to the training track in company shortly after 9:30 a.m. with jockey Manny Franco aboard. Firenze Fire broke off at the fifth-eighths pole a few lengths behind his stablemate, 5-year-old allowance winner Whatstotalkabout. 

The pair covered the first furlong in a leisurely 14 1/5 seconds and picked up the pace as they rounded the turn. Firenze Fire rated comfortably behind his workmate and, when tipped to the outside by Franco, responded with a strong kick inside the eighth pole to finish about 1 ½ lengths ahead at the wire and galloped out a solid quarter-mile.

Firenze Fire earned an official half-mile time of 50.69 seconds.

“It’s the same as he always works. He’s kind of a plugging-along horse,” said Servis by phone. “He’s taken dirt in his races and I know he’s pretty fit at this point, but I still want him to stay behind horses and gallop out a little bit.”

The Gotham will be the third local Derby prep for Firenze Fire, who recorded a half-length victory with Franco aboard in the one-mile Jerome on January 13. Last time out, he finished a hard-fought second in the Grade 3 Withers at 1 1/8 miles on February 3, only his second try around two turns.

As a 2-year-old, the Poseidon’s Warrior colt won the Grade 3 Sanford and finished fourth in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga before posting a half-length win over eventual 2-year-old champion Good Magic in the Grade 1 Champagne on October 7 at Belmont. Firenze Fire made his two-turn debut while finishing a distant seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar, won by Good Magic by 4 ½ lengths.

As part of the Kentucky Derby Championship series, the Gotham awards 85 qualifying points, on a 50-20-10-5 scale, to the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

Firenze Fire currently sits fourth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 24 points as of Sunday morning.

“He doesn’t get much respect sometimes,” said Servis. “He’s kind of a Rodney Dangerfield, I don’t get it. He ran a mile and an eighth [in the Withers] and it didn’t look like he had trouble with it. He kind of made a middle move and just couldn’t get to that horse, but it wasn’t like he stopped or anything. I think if he’s ridden right, he’ll get a mile and a quarter. But, he’s got to get the points first.”

Franco will ride Firenze Fire in the Gotham, while Trevor McCarthy, who was aboard for Firenze Fire’s runner-up finish in the Withers, breezed Servis’ other probable Gotham starter, undefeated New Jersey-bred Dial Operator, on Sunday morning.

A lightly raced chestnut colt by Dialed In, Dial Operator got loose briefly near the gap of the training track but was apprehended without incident and went on to work a half-mile in 50.20.

Dial Operator broke his maiden by 1 ¼ lengths at first asking against state-breds last July at Monmouth Park and returned from an eight-month layoff to register a 4 ½-score in a 5 ½-furlong optional claimer on February 4 at Laurel Park.

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The 2018 NYRA Live Handicapping Challenge series kicks off Saturday with the Gotham Challenge at Aqueduct.

In the live-money challenge, with a $500 entry fee, of which $250 will be allocated to the prize pool and $250 for each player’s live bankroll, contestants will have the opportunity to place Win, Place, Show, Exacta, Trifecta, Quinella and Daily Double wagers on a minimum of five races at Aqueduct, and no more than five total races at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs combined. 

Held in the third-floor Manhattan Terrace, the Aqueduct Challenge provides horseplayers the opportunity to qualify for a seat to the two-day 2018 Belmont Stakes Challenge on June 8-9 and two seats to the National Horseplayers Championship in February 2019.

Registration for the Gotham Challenge is currently available now through Thursday, March 8 at 5:00 p.m. For more information and rules, please visit NYRA.com/Challenge.

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Fields are coming together for next Saturday’s Gotham Day stakes action on March 10 at Aqueduct Racetrack, featuring four stakes and anchored by the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham, part of the official Road to the Kentucky Derby.

The Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham – 3-year-olds at one mile

Kentucky Derby Championship Series, worth 50-20-10-5 points

Probable: Afleet Ascent (Jerry Hollendorfer); Beautiful Shot (Keith Desormeaux); Dial Operator (Jason Servis); Firenze Fire (Servis); Free Drop Billy (Dale Romans); Nine Route (Jeremiah Englehart); Quip (Rodolphe Brisset); Whereshetoldmetogo (Anthony Pecoraro); 

Possible: A Different Style (John Servis); Cove Blue (Romans); Diamond King (John Servis); Enticed (Kiaran McLaughlin)

The Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool – 4-year-olds and up at six furlongs

Probable: Awesome Banner (Kenneth Decker); Classy Class (McLaughlin); Do Share (Linda Rice); Favorite Tale (Guadalupe Preciado); Great Stuff (David Jacobson); Green Gratto (Gaston Grant); Threefiveindia (Chad Brown)

Possible: Candid Desire (Gary Sciacca); Life In Shambles (Steve Asmussen); My Boy Tate (Michelle Nevin); Skyler’s Scramjet (Nevin)

The $150,000 Stymie – 4-year-olds and up at one mile

Probable: Backsideofthemoon (Leo O’Brien); Fellowship (Decker); Hit It Once More (Sciacca); Preservationist (Jimmy Jerkens); Securitiz (Jerkens); Vulcan’s Forge (Todd Pletcher); Watershed (McLaughlin)

Possible: Admiral Blue (Rudy Rodriguez)

The $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational – fillies and mares 4-year-olds and up at one mile

Probable: Bishop’s Pond (Jason Servis); Boule (Bill Mott); Crimson Frost (Rice); Divine Miss Grey (Danny Gargan); Frost Wise (Michael Dilger); Highway Star (Rodrigo Ubillo); Holiday Disguise (Rice); Inconclusive (Gary Contessa)

Possible: Berned (Graham Motion); Bombshell (Jerkens); Miss Inclusive (John Servis)