Capitaine prime to take another swipe at Mo Town in G2 Nashua

by Heather Pettinger

A talented group of 2-year-olds will take center stage in the Grade 2, $200,000 Nashua for 2-year-olds at a mile as live racing moves to Aqueduct Racetrack on Friday, featuring a special, 10-race opening day card as well as full simulcast coverage of the Breeders' Cup World Championships from Santa Anita Park.

Team D's impressive maiden winner Mo Town will look to lead the charge in the Nashua, the traditional stepping stone to the New York "Road to the Kentucky Derby" stakes series. 

A $200,000 yearling purchase, the Tony Dutrow-trained Uncle Mo colt finished a promising second in his debut at Saratoga Race Course in August and turned heads with his successful follow-up four weeks later, where he drew clear to a seven-length victory on the mud on September 24 at Belmont Park.

Manny Franco has the call aboard Mo Town, who will depart from the rail.

Courtlandt Farm's Capitaine, meanwhile, will take another shot at Mo Town after finishing troubled fifth in their shared debut at the Spa. The chestnut son of Tapit, who brought $400,000 at auction as a yearling, returned at Belmont on October 1 with a 1 ½-length, maiden-breaking victory on a muddy and sealed track for trainer Mark Hennig.

"We definitely got some experience," Hennig said of his colt's Spa unveiling. "It probably came into use in his second start, because he got in between horses in his second race and got a little more education. But with 2-year-olds, they progress at different rates, so we'll just have to see how they've both progressed since then.[Capitaine] has been doing super. He's had a few nice works in between and couldn't be going into it any better."

Capitaine will be ridden by his regular jockey, Junior Alvarado, from post 3.

Han Sense, from the freshman crop of 2011 Champion 2-year-old Hansen, will get back to the dirt for the first time since his 1 ½-length maiden victory in the Iowa Cradle in August at Prairie Meadows. Trained by Mike Maker, Han Sense is a $125,000 yearling purchase by Dr. Kendall E. Hansen, who owned his Eclipse Award-winning namesake through 2- and 3-year-old campaigns that included victories in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Grade 3 Gotham and a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Blue Grass.

The gray Iowa-bred will again sport the blinkers he added in his last start when he finished second to Golden Hawk over the Tapeta at Woodbine in the Grade 3 Grey on October 9. Han Sense will have the services of jockey Paco Lopez from post 2.

With five starts at five different tracks under his belt, Tim O'Donohue and Bruce Sarro's well-travelled Boys From Boston boasts the most racing experience of the field and will make his New York debut for trainer John Robb. The Pure Prize colt was fourth in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at 37-1 while still a maiden and came back to post a 4 ¾-length score against maidens on the grass in September. 

Most recently, Boys From Boston finished second in the Fitz Dixon, Jr. Memorial on the Tapeta at Presque Isle Downs, two lengths behind Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hopeful Wellabled.

Boys From Boston will be ridden from the outside post with Mario Pino in the irons.

On tap for his stakes unveiling is Godolphin Racing's maiden Hemsworth, trained by Tom Albertrani. By Bernardini, Hemsworth has finished fourth in a pair of maiden special weights and will race with first-time Lasix in the Nashua.

Hemsworth will break from post 4 with Antonio Gallardo aboard.