11/8/19
Breeders’ Cup horses highlight the Saturday stakes at Aqueduct
By New Hot List Staff
The Saturday card at Aqueduct has three turf stakes that have drawn large fields that include four horses who were pre-entered to run in the Breeders’ Cup but did not make it into final fields.
The $100,000 Atlantic Beach, which attracted a full field of 14 turf juveniles who will race six-furlongs on the outer turf course.
Freewheeler, Embolden, and Jack and Noah, who were the second, third, and fourth place finishers in the Futurity (G3) on October 6 at Belmont Park, all were entered to run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2). Four Wheel Drive was the winner of the Futurity and he went on to an impressive front-running victory in that Breeders’ Cup event as the 1.50-1 favorite.
Freewheeler [7-2*] gets blinkers on for trainer Todd Pletcher after not keeping a straight path down the stretch in the Futurity when he was second, three-lengths behind Four Wheel Drive.
Embolden [9-2], the show horse from the Futurity, also gets blinkers on for trainer Michael Stidham. Before that race at Belmont, he had two big Virginia-bred stakes wins on the grass at Colonial Downs.
Jack and Noah [6-1] was the fourth-place finisher in the Futurity for Mark Casse when he set the early pace against a very speedy field.
“He’s doing well. He seems like a pretty talented horse,” Casse said. “It turned out to be a pretty good race. I was surprised to see him so keen and on the lead. I was shocked to see him up front. I can imagine he’ll be off the pace this time around.”
The $150,000 Artie Schiller drew a field of 13 which includes Caribou Club who was first on the Also Eligible list for the Breeders’ Cup Mile but ultimately did not make it into the field.
Caribou Club [5-2*] heads into the Artie Schiller, which will be run at a mile on the inner turf course, with two turf stakes wins for trainer Tom Proctor. The 5-year-old son of City Zip is a multi-graded stakes winner in 2018 and 2019. He won the Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup at Laurel in September.
That stakes sequence at the Big A begins in race 7 with the Pumpkin Pie that was rescheduled from Belmont Park, followed by the race 8 Artie Schiller, and concludes with the Atlantic Beach in race 9.
Full selections from the New York Hot List team, which includes the Special Saturday Pick 3, are available free of charge on this website.