Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Four New York-breds put on quite a show at winter meet
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There’s been a lot of streaking going on at Aqueduct this winter.
Aside from the seven- and sixrace win streaks put together recently by trainers Linda Rice and Rob Atras, respectively, several horses this winter have put together some impressive runs of their own.
The New York-bred stakes ranks, which have thinned out some, look to have received an influx of talented runners this winter in the form of Today’s Flavor, Dr Ardito, Ouster, and Overstep, who have combined to win 15 of their last 16 starts.
Today’s Flavor, a 5-year-old gelding by Laoban, won two allowance races during Aqueduct’s winter meet to run his winning streak to four. He is expected to make his next start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap here on April 8.
“That horse has shown enough talent, it’s almost too enticing to see what [the] hell we have,” said George Weaver, who trains Today’s Flavor.
Today’s Flavor could very well be joined in the Carter by fellow New York-bred Dr Ardito, who also has won twice here this winter – including a victory over New York-bred millionaire Bankit in the Haynesfield – to run his overall winning streak to six. Chad Brown trains Dr Ardito for Michael Dubb.
While Ouster doesn’t have a win streak, he has won three of his last four starts, including a five-length victory in a secondlevel statebred allowance last Saturday for which he earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. The 5-year-old gelding by Network is trained by Mark Hennig for Windylea Farm, both of whom are having terrific winter meets.
As it relates to Ouster, Hennig said patience and stretching the horse out in distance have been key to his recent run of success.
“He’s the kind of horse that just keeps improving,” Hennig told the New York Racing Association publicity department. “The more we stretched him out, the more he improved, and I think he’s even better around two turns. If you see him, he’s huge and a mountain of a horse. He never looked like a horse who wanted to sprint.”
As Ouster has already won on turf, plenty of options abound for his next start. The first turf races of the year are written in the condition book for April 7.
Ouster’s only loss in his last four starts came by a halflength to Overstep, a son of Into Mischief who returned from a 15-month layoff to win two statebred allowance races for Todd Pletcher and the partnership of Mike Repole and St. Elias Stable.
Meanwhile, on the female side, Granny’s Connection, a New York-bred daughter of Connect trained by Tom Morley, won her third straight race Sunday, a second-level New York-bred allowance by 5 1/4 lengths. Her three wins have come by a combined 21 1/4 lengths.
Americanrevolution to return
Speaking of talented New York-breds, the Grade 1 winning Americanrevolution is slated to return to the races in 2023, per Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, which co-owns the son of Constitution with China Horse Club.
Walden, via text, said Americanrevolution is in training at WinStar and is scheduled to return to Pletcher’s barn in a month.
Americanrevolution, who won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in 2021, went 0 for 3 in 2022 with second-place finishes to Olympiad in both the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and Grade 2 Stephen Foster.
Americanrevolution is 4 for 4 against New York breds with three stakes victories.
Franco, Rice in control
With 27 winners from 97 mounts over the last 15 cards, Manny Franco has taken control of the jockey standings for Aqueduct’s winter meet. Going into the final three days of the session, Franco has a 61-53 lead over Dylan Davis, who has gone 19 for 102 over the same 15-day period.
Jose Lezcano, who has won 17 races from 61 mounts over the last 15 cards, is entrenched in third with 42 wins.
Linda Rice, who had a string of 10 wins from 12 races stopped Sunday when she went 1 for 9 with five seconds, will win the training title. She has 36 wins, 16 more than Rob Atras. Chad Brown is third with 16 wins.
Windylea Farm, the nom de course of Phil and Kip O’Neill, is the leading owner with 11 wins from 28 starters. Windylea also has four seconds and 10 thirds for a remarkable 89 percent in the money.
Michael Dubb, Winning Move, and Linda Rice are each credited with 10 wins as owners at the meet.