11/22/19
The Red Smith at Aqueduct anchors the Saturday Special Pick 3
By New York Hot List Staff
The mile and three-eighths $200,000 Red Smith (G3) drew a full field of eleven for what is the final graded stakes race of the year for older male horses on the turf in New York.
The field is headed by the six-time graded stakes winner Tiz a Slam [ML 8-1] who ships to New York from Woodbine for Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield. The big son of Tiznow won three consecutive graded stakes this year and was last seen running fourth in the Northern Dancer (G1) against a star-studded international field at his home track.
Attfield, who is an eight-time Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s outstanding trainer, has had to take his time developing Tiz a Slam.
“He was a very uncoordinated young horse altogether. I think he’s just at his best right now,” explained Attfield. “I didn’t think I’d even run him as a 2-year-old with the size of him, but as long as he got into races where he didn’t get checked or steadied and got into that big stride of his, he was very effective. But he couldn’t really play and jump and buck without half stumbling and falling over. He was just a big, gangly horse. But now, he can move and he’s showing a lot more speed now than he had before too. He’s a really nice horse.”
The 6-year-old Sadler’s Joy [ML 8-5] has been running exclusively in Grade 1 and 2 races. He was last seen missing the top spot in the Turf Classic (G1) at Belmont Park on Oct. 5 by a half-length for trainer Tom Albertrani.
“He’s very strong into this race; we gave him a little bit of time since the last race took a bit out of him,” Albertrani said. “We didn’t want to go to California [for the Breeders’ Cup] unless he was 100 percent, but these extra couple of weeks have been good. He’s coming into the race really well.”
Sadler’s Joy has a career record of 25: 6-4-7 with earnings of $2.36 million.
“He’s only run three times this year but he’s been narrowly beaten in his last two and his first race back, he had a lot of trouble but if he had a better trip, he would have been a lot closer in the Bowling Green,” Albertrani added. “He always seems to run his race and we look forward to seeing him run this weekend. With his running style, the more horses that are in the race, he’ll have to save more ground. It’s all about getting a good trip.”
The Red Smith, which is carded as race 9 out of 10, has a scheduled post-time of 3:47 pm ET and will serve as the final leg of the Special Saturday Pick 3. Full analysis of the Red Smith, that Pick 3, and the entire Saturday card from the New York Hot List team is available free of charge on this website.
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