New York-bred 3-year-olds featured in the Gander at Aqueduct

By NY Hot List staff | Thursday, February 10, 2022

Six 3-year-old New York-breds will enter the starting gate on Saturday at Aqueduct in the $100,000 Gander stakes. Geno and Barese, who both won a state-bred stakes race in their prior start at the Big A, will try the one-turn mile for the first time.

Geno had a big payday when he won the $500,000 New York Stallion Series Great White Way Stakes in December after trainer David Donk switched him from turf to dirt.

“He’s always been a good workhorse on the dirt, which is why we ran in the stallion series,” explained Donk. “He’s trained well since. I’d like to think, as 3-year-olds do, that he would move forward a little bit. I’m as interested as anyone to see how much he might progress.”

Barese won both of his starts with a maiden score at Belmont Park followed by his victory in the Rego Park at Aqueduct. The son of Laoban had eight months off between races for trainer Michale Maker.

Here are the Hot List picks for the Gander:

The $100,000 Gander, Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 8.

(7) Bold Journey (A) was an open length winner of his second start for Bill Mott as an odds-on favorite. The second-place runner that day came right back to break his maiden. (5) Barese (C) won both of his starts with a maiden score at Belmont in May and then after a layoff he won the Rego Park at Aqueduct last month when he was bet down from 7-1 to 9-2. (6) Geno moved from turf to dirt and won a NY Stallion Series stake going seven furlongs at the Big A. (1) G Munning won at first asking with a front-end effort at Aqueduct and then tried a state-bred stakes.

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