The Woodhaven has 3-year-olds on the turf at the Big A on Saturday
The Woodhaven has 3-year-olds on the turf at the Big A on Saturday
By the New York Hot List Staff Friday, April 16, 2021
Seven 3-year-olds will be looking for their first stakes victory at Aqueduct on Saturday in the $100,000 Woodhaven on the turf. The 1 1/16 mile contest is scheduled be run on the inner grass course.
At post time of 5:19 pm ET, the favorites are expected to be Hard Love who is trained by Jonathan Thomas and the Jorge Abreu runner Shawdyshawdyshawdy.
Hard Love will make his first start of the year with Javier Castellano on board after training in Florida before shipping north at Belmont Park.
“We had been scrambling a little bit for works, but I think we have enough foundation where we can get him started in the Woodhaven,” Thomas said. “Hopefully, as the distances get drawn out over the summer, he’s going to be adept at that.”
On the other hand, Shawdyshawdyshawdy has raced in 2021 at Tampa Downs in an allowance race. Trevor McCarthy will be his rider in the Woodhaven.
“He’s doing great,” Abreu said. “I gave him the allowance race because I wanted to get him back on track from the time off. He ran a good race and tried. He’s a horse that I think wants to go longer.”
Here are the Hot List picks for the Woodhaven:
The $100,000 Woodhaven, Aqueduct, Saturday, Race 8.
(4) Shawdyshawdyshawdy [ML 4-1] raced in a pair of Belmont Park turf stakes as a 2-year-old and then was second this year in an allowance at Tampa for trainer Jorge Abreu whose horses have come out running very well in the Aqueduct spring meeting. (1) Hard Love [ML 4-5] was a debut winner on the grass last year at Belmont and then was second in the Central Park at Aqueduct before turf racing stopped for the winter for Jonathan Thomas. (5) Original [ML 6-1] has two excellent turf performances and two poor dirt starts. He set the pace and finished third in the Kitten’s Joy at Gulfstream in January. (7) Sifting Sands [ML 5-1] broke his maiden in his second career start at Tampa for Chad Brown and came back to New York to train for this start.
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