New York-breds are featured on Saturday at the Big A

By NY Hot List staff | Thursday, December 15, 2022

New York-breds are featured on Saturday’s card at Aqueduct with four stakes races that include a pair of $500,000 stakes that are part of the New York Stallion Series. In an interesting twist, there are 22 horses in the fields of those two big money stakes and 13 of them are still maidens.

Race 9 is the Great White Way division of the Stallion Series and features 2-year-olds that were sired by nominated New York-bred stallions. The 3-1 morning line favorite is Vacation Dance who is trained by John Kimmel and will make his first start on the dirt after three races on the grass including a speedy front-end victory in the Atlantic Beach at Aqueduct last month.

“He ran well in the graded stake and just fell short of going to the Breeders’ Cup – he was on the also-eligible list,” said Kimmel. “After he won the open-company stake on the grass, we knew that he was Stallion [Stakes Series] eligible, so we started gearing his training on the dirt pretty regularly since that race. He’s just getting better and better all the time and I think he should be pretty competitive in this spot.”

The $500,000 Great White Way – Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 9.

(2) Bustino Santino (A) checked hard and had to rally late and still got third while looking for his first victory. He will step up to this $500,000 stakes race giving this rich race seven maiden runners in an 11 horse field. (8) Lifetime of Chance (B) was third and then second in his two career starts in NY-bred maiden special weights. The Linda Rice barn is very hot right now and the veteran trainer has been placing horses in winning spots. (1) Jackson Heights actually broke his maiden in the Bertram Bongard which is a stakes race for NY-breds at the Belmont at the Big A meeting. (11) Vacation Dance is expected to be on the lead which he did in all three of his starts on the turf. Last month he won the Atlantic Beach on the grass at Aqueduct on the front-end. He is the fastest horse in the field and should be on the lead if he takes to racing on the dirt.

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