The Critical Way faces a tougher task

The Critical Way got shut out of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in November, was pulled up at Tampa Bay Downs during a race in December, and didn’t start again until May 22 at Monmouth Park in the $100,000 Get Serious Stakes. By then, there had to be serious concerns the 8-year-old could maintain the solid stakes-level form he’d produced in 2021.

He did.

The Critical Way showed all the early speed he’d ever had, running his pace rivals off their feet and going on to a 2 1/4-length victory last month. Can he do it again Sunday in the $100,000 Select, a 5 1/2-furlong Monmouth turf dash?

“I was big-time surprised,” Jose Delgado, who trains the gelding for Monster Racing, said of the ace comeback.

Delgado said connections never could diagnose an injury after the Tampa Bay race, which came into play only after The Critical Way failed to draw into the oversubscribed BC Turf Sprint field on Nov. 6. Delgado elected to give his aging sprinter a break, nonetheless, to point for a summer and fall campaign if the horse was willing and able.

“We were thinking we were going to give it one more shot,” Delgado said. “It looked like he came back the same way he was going last year.”

There are 10 horses in the main body of the Select and two other entrants: Hopeful Treasure runs only in the unlikely event the race is moved to the main track and King of Dreams is an also-eligible.

The Select looks tougher for The Critical Way than the Get Serious. Sunday’s contest is a half-furlong farther, The Critical Way picks up six pounds (going from 118 to 124), and the gelding is drawn inside some serious early pace. Carotari, who wired the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico last month and ships from Kentucky for trainer Brian Lynch, might be just as quick as The Critical Way – even if Delgado doesn’t think so.

“I love that he stays calm in the gate; it’s all about the break,” Delgado said. “I’m going to send. I think I’m faster.”

High Limit Room chased The Critical Way in the Get Serious and finished a solid second, and he can win this time. Once purely a front-runner, High Limit Room sat off a horse and won a Fair Grounds turf-sprint allowance race March 27, and trainer Jose Camejo said High Limit Room still was getting settled into his Monmouth summer base following the ship north from Louisiana when he ran in the Get Serious.

“He’s training so much better now, more aggressive, more alert,” Camejo said. “I think he’s going to run much better.”

High Limit Room has the outside post, perfect for the stalking trip Camejo would prefer. A 4-year-old by the strong turf-sprint sire Kantharos, High Limit Room is learning to harness his speed.

“I want him to be right behind the speed,” Camejo said.

Proven Strategies, Belgrano, and Noble Emotion also are plausible winners. Mexican Wonder Boy is switched to turf, which he’s never tried, off a $40,000 Saffie Joseph Jr. claim.

It’s a select group of older turf sprinters for an ungraded stakes race.