Tom Fool Handicap
Aqueduct, ninth race. Grade 3. Purse: $200,000. 6 furlongs, 3-year-olds and up. Post: 4:34 p.m.
LOWDOWN: We haven’t seen this happen much recently, but back in the day, it was routine for California speedsters to ship east for sprint stakes and run the locals off their feet. The 5-year-old gelding Comma
to the Top, with a record of 11-for-27 and over $1 million earnings, ranks among the top sprinters on the West Coast, and he comes off two straight graded-stakes efforts in which he sizzled on the lead through half-miles in 43.61 and 43.88 seconds. When the gates open today, it should be a matter of “which way did he go?”
TV: HRTV, TVG, NYRA Channel 71
GOTHAM
Aqueduct, 10th race. Grade 3. Purse: $400,000. 1 1/16 miles, 3-year-olds. Post: 5:02 p.m.
LOWDOWN: He’s no Uncle Mo, but Repole Stable’s Overanalyze — like Mo, trained by Todd Pletcher and today ridden by John Velazquez — telegraphed that he’s among the elite of his crop with victories last year in the Futurity and Remsen. He has been training steadily in Florida for his 3-year-old debut, and you can bet Pletcher has him wound tight because the Gotham’s 50 points to the winner would insure his starting berth in the Kentucky Derby.
TV: HRTV, TVG, NYRA Channel 71
SANTA ANITA HANDICAP
Santa Anita, 10th race. Grade 1. Purse: $750,000. 1 1/4 miles, 4-year-olds and up. Post: 7:30 p.m.
LOWDOWN: Never before have two past winners of the Big Cap faced off before in the race, but history will be made today as last year’s winner, Ron the Greek, takes on the 2011 winner, Game On Dude. Both are coming off runaway victories in their seasonal debuts, but we give the edge to Ron the Greek. He is getting three pounds from Game On Dude (122 to 125), and although Game On Dude loves Santa Anita, he is suspect at the distance. Two of his worst efforts ever came going 1 1/4 miles last year in the Dubai World Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic.
TV: HRTV, NYRA Channel 71
LAST WEEK: At Gulfstream, Dreaming of Julia (4-5) was second in the Davona Dale paying $2.60 to place, $2.10 to show; Violence (3-5) was second in the Fountain of Youth paying $2.40 to place, $2.10 to show; at Fair Grounds, Normandy Invasion (3-2) was fifth in the Rise Star.