Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Brown has strong hand for New York Showcase Day
ELMONT, N.Y. – Even on New York Showcase Day, trainer Chad Brown looks tough to beat.
Brown will have runners in just three of the eight stakes for New York-breds on Saturday, but he will be live in all three.
In the $300,000 Empire Classic, the richest race on the 11-race program, Brown will send out the multiple stakeswinning 3-year-old Twisted Tom in a nine-horse field. Twisted Tom has won five of his last six starts, the lone defeat being a sixth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes.
Twisted Tom will take on a trio of runners from trainer Rudy Rodriguez: Royal Posse, Control Group, and Becker’s Galaxy.
Naturally, Brown will have runners in both of the turf stakes. In the $200,000 Mohawk, which drew seven, he will send out Offering Plan and Nevisian Sky. Offering Plan will be running back just two weeks after finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.
In the $200,000 Ticonderoga for females, which drew nine, Brown has the uncoupled entry of Fifty Five and Ancient Secret. Fifty Five, a supplemental entrant, has placed in multiple graded stakes, while Ancient Secret is still trying to regain her graded stakeswinning form from a year ago. In other stakes on Saturday: ◗ The sisters Jcs Shooting Star and Jcs American Dream square off in a field of nine entered in the $250,000 Empire Distaff.
◗ Weekend Hideaway, Celtic Chaos, and the talented 3-yearold T Loves a Fight are part of a 10-horse field in a competitive renewal of the $150,000 Hudson at 6 1/2 furlongs.
◗ Picco Uno, who has won her last five sprint races, will take on Quezon and Royal Inheritance in the $150,000 Iroquois.
◗ Battle Station, a 9 1/4-length winner of the Bertram Bongard Stakes, will be the horse to beat in a field of 11 2-year-olds in the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow.
◗ Held Accountable, Pure Silver, and Newport Breeze head a field of eight entered in the $250,000 Maid of the Mist Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
First post Saturday is 12:25 p.m. Eastern.
King Kreesa, Kharafa sidelined
The New York-bred turf stalwarts King Kreesa and Kharafa will be conspicuous by their absence from the New York Showcase Day program.
King Kreesa, who won the Mohawk in 2013 and has run in it three times, is sidelined with a foot abscess, trainer Linda Rice said. Rice said she believes the plan is for King Kreesa to return as a 9-year-old.
Kharafa, the winner of the 2014 Mohawk, recently underwent surgery to remove a knee chip. Trainer Tim Hills said Kharafa should be able to resume training in January and will be brought back to race at 9.
Aqueduct turf sees action
When Aqueduct opens its fall meet on Nov. 3, it will unveil a new turf course. On Wednesday, horses were permitted on the course for the first time, with trainer Rudy Rodriguez sending out four horses to gallop over it.
“There were some parts on the [clubhouse] turn where the grass came back up, but most of it looked pretty good,” said Rodriguez, who was on one of the horses himself. “It looks like it’s holding up really good. Of course, it’ll be different when you breeze over it or when they start racing on it.”
Martin Panza, the New York Racing Association’s senior vice president of racing operations, walked the course afterward and declared it “ready to go.”
The new turf course was laid down this summer, replacing the one-mile inner dirt track. The course, which will be able to accommodate three different rail settings, will enable the racing office to write turf sprints, though they will be limited to one a day this fall, according to Panza.
All dirt racing at Aqueduct from November through April will be conducted on the outer track, which will now have a limestone base and will resemble the Belmont training track in composition.
Stone not returning
Travis Stone, who has split the race-calling duties at Aqueduct the last three winters with John Imbriale, will not be returning to the New York Racing Association this winter.
Stone, the regular race-caller at Churchill Downs, said he doesn’t want to move around so frequently.
“When I got back from Aqueduct this spring, I felt like I was burned out from moving around,” Stone, 33, said Tuesday. “I thought by the end of summer I’d feel better about it. But as summer wound down, I really didn’t feel better about it. I sought the advice of friends and ultimately decided to take a break from moving around every few months.”
NYRA employs three announcers. Larry Collmus calls the races from April through October. Imbriale calls full time in November and is the primary winter announcer.
Stone has made the morning line at Saratoga the last two years. It is not clear whether he will return to that job in 2018.
David O’Rourke, NYRA’s vice president and chief revenue officer, said NYRA “will explore all our options” regarding a winter announcer and a Saratoga morning linemaker.