Chateau one to catch in Fall Highweight

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Back at his preferred track and distance, Chateau will look to get back to the winner’s circle when he runs in Sunday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Fall Highweight Handicap at Aqueduct.

Chateau, a 6-year-old gelding by Flat Out, is 5 for 10 at Aqueduct – and 2 for 27 elsewhere – with all five of those wins coming at the Fall Highweight distance of six furlongs. That includes a 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap here on March 6.

Chateau had a summer break and returned to the races in an allowance on Sept. 13 at Parx Racing, but finished last of seven as the even-money favorite. Trainer Rob Atras said Chateau didn’t handle the surface that day and is throwing out the race. Atras said Chateau has put in some solid works since and he feels the horse “should be pretty good for this race.”

Speed is Chateau’s game and with the rail draw and Kendrick Carmouche aboard, there is little doubt how he figures to run in the Fall Highweight, in which he carries co-highweight of 131 pounds along with Sir Alfred James.

“As long as we get out of the gate, which Kendrick knows how to do, we’re going to run our race,” Atras said.

There does appear to be other speed types in the Fall Highweight field, including Sir Alfred James and Rough Entry. Sir Alfred James ships in from Kentucky for what will be his third start in three weeks for owner/trainer Norman “Lynn” Cash. He claimed Sir Alfred James for $62,500 on Sept. 25, and the 5-year-old gelding has run three times since, including a neck defeat in the Bet On Sunshine Stakes on Nov.

6 and a victory in a stakescaliber allowance on Nov. 17 at Churchill.

“I run most of my horses back a little quicker than others,” Cash said Friday as he was driving Sir Alfred James from Lexington to New York. “When they’re in the track’s barn I got a chance to make money, when they’re in my barn that costs me money.”

Cash, who has only been training on his own seven months, said Sir Alfred James “runs better when he pops the gate real hard like he has in his last couple of races.”

Smooth B, Hopeful Treasure and War Tocsin – who all ship up from Parx – have enough speed to be forward factors as well.

Wendell Fong seems like the most likely beneficiary of a likely speed duel. Wendell Fong was in good form last winter, winning the Fire Plug Stakes at Laurel and running second to Chateau in the Tom Fool. Wendell Fong, off a sevenmonth layoff and a switch to trainer Chad Summers, finished sixth of seven in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler, which was run over a sloppy Belmont main track.

Green Light Go, second to Tiz the Law in the 2019 Champagne, is back with Jimmy Jerkens, who had him to begin his career. Green Light Go will have blinkers on and is back to sprinting on dirt for the first time since February.

BARBARA D. LIVINGSTON Chateau will break from the rail as the 131-pound co-highweight in Sunday’s Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap.