Today’s Holiday Fest at Aqueduct is the final big day of racing in New York this year – or perhaps any year, if the steamrollers and obstructionists in Albany don’t get their stuff together before NYRA’s franchise expires in 37 days, and racing shuts down for who knows how long.
Topping this afternoon’s four graded stakes is the 19th running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Cigar Mile, which trainer Bob Baffert should win for the fourth time in the last eight years with heavy favorite Midnight Lute, following the victories of El Corredor (2000) and Congaree (2002-03).
With the possible exception of the 3-year-old Nobiz Like Shobiz, who took the Wood Memorial last April, Midnight Lute is the best horse to run at the Big A this year. Baffert ranks the 4-year-old son of Derby winner Real Quiet among his own personal best, a boast nobody took seriously until Midnight Lute exploded through the stretch to dominate his last two starts, taking the seven-furlong Forego at Saratoga by 21/4 lengths and the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Monmouth Park by 43/4.
Midnight Lute has never won beyond seven furlongs, but ran respectable races last winter at Santa Anita in the San Fernando and Strub stakes, both around two turns.
“The thing is, he won the [BC] Sprint, but he’s not a sprinter,” Baffert said. “I don’t think the distance will be an issue for him.”
Midnight Lute doesn’t figure to be hampered by his 123-pound highweight. Sir Greeley and Daaher shape up as his main competition. Today’s three other stakes are the Demoiselle for 2-year-old fillies and Remsen for 2-year-old colts, both Grade 2s at a mile-and-an-eighth with purses of $200,000, and the Grade 3, $100,000 Discovery Handicap, a mile-and-an-eighth, for 3-year-olds and up.
All three are wide-open. We’ll go with Todd Pletcher’s Sunday Elegance in the Demoiselle, off her runaway maiden score last out going two turns at Monmouth; Barclay Tagg’s Big Truck in the Remsen, despite his narrow defeat in the Sleepy Hollow for New York-breds; and Nick Zito’s Helsinki in the Discovery.