Francesca LeDonne Photo

Newstome looks to make headlines in Saturday's Jimmy Winkfield

by Brian Bohl

Two-time stakes-winner Newstome will make his New York debut as part of a seven-horse field for sophomores going seven furlongs in Saturday's $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The 36th edition of the Jimmy Winkfield, named for the two-time Kentucky Derby winning rider in 1901-02 who was the last black jockey to win the "Run for the Roses," will see Newstome make his second straight start at seven-eighths of a mile following his third-place finish in the Pennsylvania Nursery on December 7 at Parx.

Owned by Marie Trombetta and trained by her husband, Michael Trombetta, Newstome won his debut on August 3 in a 5 ½-furlong main track sprint at Parx. Following a seventh-place finish in his first turf race next out in the Rosie's on August 31 at Colonial Downs, the Pennsylvania-bred son of Goldencents thrived on Presque Isle Downs' all-weather track with a three-length score in the Mark McDermott on October 16.

Newstome followed with his second consecutive stakes win, edging Informative by a nose on November 16 at Laurel at six furlongs, before stretching out to seven furlongs in the finale of his juvenile campaign, finishing on the board for the fourth time in his five career starts in the Pennsylvania Nursey over a fast track.

"We've been delighted with him and he's certainly exceeded our expectations," Trombetta said. "His preference is probably going three-quarters, where he's 2-for-2, but those races are hard to come by, so we'll see how everything shapes out."

Jockey Manny Franco will pick up the mount for the first time, drawing post 1.

Ralph Evan's Quixotic earned a field-best 80 Beyer Speed Figure for his maiden-breaking victory at second asking on January 18 at the Big A under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, wiring a seven-horse field for a 4 ¼-length score on a fast track.

The Jonathan Thomas trainee ran a competitive second - just a length behind Trash Talker - in his debut on December 7 in a six-furlong sprint on the same track. The Quality Road colt, purchased for $300,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, handled the slight stretch out in distance and will now contest seven furlongs for the first time.

Eric Cancel will be in the irons from post 6.

"We were pleased with his first two starts and Johnny seemed to be pretty pleased with him," Thomas said. "Subsequently, he came back well. It's a little quicker than typically we've run one back, especially heading into a stakes, but the timing is what it is. He seems to be doing well, so we'll see how it shapes up.

"The speed figure coming back gave us some confidence, and the manner in which he won, with some force in hand, [encouraged us]." Thomas added. "He seemed to gallop out nicely. You only learn about them by running them."

Live Oak Plantation's Old Chestnut, a turf stakes winner, will make his first start on dirt and first non-turf appearance since running fifth over Woodbine's synthetic surface on July 7 in his career debut.

After finishing out of the money in three consecutive stakes starts on grass, trainer Mark Casse said he wanted to see if the Speightstown would benefit from a change in surface. Old Chestnut has breezed six times on the Belmont Park dirt training track, including a four-furlong work in 48.77 seconds on Friday.

"He's trained well enough over the dirt and there aren't a whole lot of options out there right now on the grass," Casse said. "We wanted to go ahead and find out sooner rather than later about the dirt and see how he does. We need to find out where we are. If he's just turf, it's better to find out now."

Kendrick Carmouche will ride from post 4.

Secret Rules will make the jump to stakes company off back-to-back wins, including an 8 ¾-length route in his sophomore bow on January 10 at Aqueduct. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the son of Secret Circle has not finished off the board in four starts [2-1-1].

Junior Alvarado, aboard for all of those starts, will have the return call from post 2.

Rounding out the field is Polar Bear Pete, fifth in the Jerome on New Year's Day before running second against optional claimers on January 10, for trainer Edward Barker [post 7, Dylan Davis]; Johnny Ritt, fifth in the Pennsylvania Nursery before besting optional claimers on a sloppy and sealed track on December 30 at Parx, trained by Robert Reid [post 5, Christopher DeCarlo]; and Montauk Traffic, making his first stakes appearance after a maiden-breaking win at second asking on December 28, for conditioner Linda Rice [post 3, Jose Lezcano].

Saturday's nine-race card will feature the Jimmy Winkfield in Race 8 with a post time of 4:25 p.m. Eastern. First post is 1:00 p.m.