Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
O’Neill taking blinkers off Wipe the Slate for Gotham
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – An equipment change helped Wipe the Slate achieve his first career victory. Trainer Doug O’Neill hopes another change will help the 3-year-old get his second one.
O’Neill will remove the blinkers from Wipe the Slate’s equipment when he runs in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. Wipe the Slate will attempt to rebound from a last-place finish in the Grade 3 Robert Lewis on Jan. 30 at Santa Anita.
Wipe the Slate, a son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, finished second, beaten 9 1/2 lengths, to the highly touted Life Is Good in a Nov. 22 maiden race at Del Mar. O’Neill added blinkers to Wipe the Slate’s equipment, and he won a seven-furlong maiden race by 3 1/4 lengths on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. In the Robert Lewis, Wipe the Slate’s first start around two turns, the colt chased Medina Spirit from second through solid early fractions and was basically done around the middle of the far turn.
“He can get a little distracted and doesn’t completely pay attention,” O’Neill said Wednesday about the equipment change. “The blinkers helped that out. But going two turns where you got to settle, breathe, and relax into that first turn it doesn’t help that out.
“If we can let him get comfortable and more mentally mature, hopefully that will enable him get the two turns that he sure acts like in the morning won’t be a problem.”
O’Neill said Wipe the Slate, with Flavien Prat up, worked six furlongs in 1:11.60 without blinkers on Feb. 27 at Santa Anita.
Kendrick Carmouche, the meet’s leading rider, will have the mount on Wipe the Slate, who drew post 4 in a field of eight entered Wednesday.
The Gotham field swelled to eight at entry time, in part due to late entries of horses who were targeting a first-level allowance race on the card that was not used.
Freedom Fighter, the Bob Baffert-trained runner who finished second to Concert Tour in the San Vicente, will likely be the favorite. Trainer Chad Brown entered both Highly Motivated, winner of the Nyquist Stakes at Keeneland last November, and Crowded Trade, a maiden winner on debut Jan. 28. Atlantic Road, Weyburn, and The Reds, all of whom were under consideration for an allowance, were entered in the Gotham.
The top four finishers from the Gotham earn qualifying points on a 50-20-10-5 basis toward the May 1 Kentucky Derby. The Gotham will go as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m.
Share the Ride perseveres
Share the Ride has hardly been slowed by a quarter crack this winter.
Share the Ride, winner of the Fall Highweight at Aqueduct in November and the General George Stakes two weeks ago at Laurel Park, will seek a third Grade 3 stakes victory when he starts as the 124-pound highweight in Saturday’s Tom Fool Stakes at Aqueduct.
In New York, Share the Ride starts under trainer Antonio Arriaga’s name. Outside of New York, he runs for trainer Miguel Penaloza, who oversees the gelding’s training at Parx Racing.
According to Arriaga, Share the Ride came out of his victory in the Fall Highweight with a quarter crack. While he did miss the Gravesend at Aqueduct in December, Share the Ride ran a sold second in the Fire Plug on Jan. 16. He came back two weeks later to finish third of five in the Grade 3 Toboggan on Jan. 30 before bouncing back to win the General George on Feb. 20.
Share the Ride has done most of his training at Parx.
“When you got a quarter crack, it’s not easy on this track,” said Arriaga, referring to Belmont’s training track.
Share the Ride drew post 2 and will be ridden by Victor Carrasco, who rode him in the General George. Pete’s Playcall, the Gravesend winner, drew the rail. Outside of Share the Ride, in order, are Chateau, Happy Farm, Speed Pass, and Wendell
Fong.
Lake Avenue winning again
Lake Avenue returns to the site of her victory in the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes in 2019 when she heads a field of seven entered in Saturday’s $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational going a one-turn mile.
Lake Avenue went winless in four starts at age 3, including a fourth-place finish as the 4-5 favorite in the Busher Invitational here last March. She is already ahead of the game at 4 with an allowance win going seven furlongs at Gulfstream on Feb. 3.
Lake Avenue’s top challenger figures to be Thankful, who is cutting back in distance after recording a three-quarterlength victory in the Ladies Handicap going 1 1/8 miles on Jan. 17. Thankful did win a first-level allowance going a one-turn mile last September at Belmont.
Gone Glimmering, Halo City, Landing Zone, Needs Supervision, and Flashndynamite complete the field.
Mo Desserts steps up in Busher
Mo Desserts was a visually impressive 15 1/2-length maiden winner in her second start here on Feb. 8. Saturday, she’ll take on stakes winners Laobanonaprayer, Miss Brazil, Make Mischief and The Grass Is Blue in the $250,000 Busher Invitational.
Trainer Jimmy Jerkens acknowledges that Mo Desserts benefited from a “very speedbiased track” when she won her debut, but the fact she has won at the one-mile distance made this spot attractive.
Mo Desserts will break from post 5 in a six-horse field that also includes Search Results, a debut winner at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 3.