Asti Sky, a maiden, still plays

If the morning line comes close to holding, Asti Sky is the play over Fast Jack in the $60,000 Sun Power Stakes on Sunday at Hawthorne.

The Sun Power, for Illinois-registered, -conceived, or -foaled 2-year-olds, is carded at six furlongs on dirt and drew a field of eight, including three maidens.

Asti Sky, listed at 6-1 on the line, is among the non-winners but ran well in his lone start, a race that came against open maiden special weight competition. By Sky Mesa out of Exquisite Lady, by Posse, Asti Sky is a Danalisa Racing homebred gelding trained by Mark Cristel, and with moderate second-start improvement he can win the Sun Power.

First time out, on Oct. 10, Asti Sky was antsy in the starting gate and came out of post 1 flat-footed, bumping with the horse immediately to his outside before jockey E.T. Baird sent him hard to make the lead. There Asti Sky stayed until the furlong pole, where Lucky Shot ranged alongside and drew away for an easy win.

Asti Sky stayed on solidly to hold the third-place runner a length clear, while Sky Shot’s connections thought enough of him to send him to a Keeneland stakes race. Asti Sky, Baird up again, has a better draw Sunday in post 8 and can stalk in the clear if other speed horses go too fast down the backstretch.

Fast Jack, who has post 9, could be part of the pace, too, as was the case when he won his career debut by two lengths on June 29 at Fairmount Park. Fast Jack, a Bill Stiritz homebred trained by Scott Becker, earned a 51 Beyer Speed Figure for that win, this field’s top number, but beat only four Illinois-breds in a 4 1/2-furlong race. He races on Lasix for the first time Sunday, but any anything close to his 5-2 morning-line odds would be negative value.

Vitale went 48-53 on the Beyer scale in a pair of Arlington Polytrack races, the second a $20,000 maiden-claiming win, but his number dropped to just 16 on Oct. 16, when he tried dirt at Hawthorne for the first time. That performance, a fading fourth, might not tell the whole tale and Vitale is worth a second look trying dirt a second time.

Post time for the Sun Power, race 6 of 9, is 5:30 p.m. Central. If the weather forecast as of Friday holds the main track should be fast, the turf firm.

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