Stymie highlights Saturday card at Aqueduct

By NY Hot List Staff | Friday, February 24, 2023

In an interesting race within a race, the featured Stymie Stakes at Aqueduct on Saturday brings together a duel between some distance runners against a razor-sharp sprinter. Repo Rocks, who has won his last three starts, is coming off a lopsided stakes win at seven furlongs, will be tested at a mile distance that he has tried only once and finished off the board. The main challenges should come from Miles D and Bourbonic, both of whom are stakes winners at a two-turn, mile-and-an-eighth distance at Aqueduct. Whether Repo Rocks’ speed can hold off the veteran closers promises to have a huge say in the outcome of an intriguing betting race.

Here’s the Hot List picks for the $125,000 Stymie:

Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 8 – (2) Far Mo Power won a top-level allowance in his first start of the year after finishing first in the Parx Dirt Mile last year ahead of Mind Control but was disqualified after they bumped down the stretch. He also won a PA-bred stakes race. (3) Repo Rocks won his third race in a row when he upset the Toboggan (G3) by eight-lengths at 10-1 earning a 111 Beyer Speed Figure. He will have to stretch out to a mile from that huge seven-furlong victory. (1) Bourbonic ran the fastest speed figure of his career when he won a second-level allowance. He could be getting back to the form that won the Wood Memorial for him. (6) Miles D was a promising 3-year-old that was second in the Curlin and then third in the Travers (G1). Since then he made one start in 2022 and then tried the Fred Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream Park after almost a year layoff.

The rest of the NY Hot List picks and the Special Saturday Pick 3 are available free of charge at this website.