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HANDICAPPING INSIGHTS JANUARY 13, 2012 by Dick Powell Happy Friday the 13th. Not that any of us horseplayers are superstitious. I'm just saying. I know this early in the season it's anecdotal, but the positive impact of the new gaming dollars on the racing at Aqueduct has been everything it can be hoped for. Yes, we still have too many $7,500 claimers but it just seems that the better races have bigger, more competitive fields. With purses for the stakes race bumped up significantly, the NYRA race office has something to sell and many trainers are buying. And as the meet goes on, and owners and trainers see for themselves how strong the purse structure will be, it will only get better. Last week, Aqueduct had the Busanda and Count Fleet scheduled and they each drew seven entries. Not earth shattering, but they both came up with competitive fields. In the Busanda, Sweet Seventeen went to the front and looked like she would dominate as an odds-on choice should do. Ramon Dominguez guided her through early fractions of :24.80, :49.69 and 1:14.36. While the teletimer was telling one story, watching Sweet Seventeen around the far turn showed that she was in trouble and running a bit erratically. Dominguez was trying to sit chilly but when Mike Luzzi began to apply more pressure aboard Captivating Lass, Sweet Seventeen was not able to spurt at the top of the stretch and the battle was on. The two three-year-old fillies duked it out before Captivating Lass assumed control and won by a neck. Both fillies showed that they will be able to handle graded stakes down the road and both are in good hands. The next race was the Count Fleet, whose purse has been raised to $150,000, and it also attracted a field of seven. Last year, Alpha was a dominant debut winner at Saratoga going seven furlongs faster than the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes was run later in the meet. He did not run again until the Grade 1 Champagne, but ran into the red-hot Union Rags and had to rally through traffic to be a distant second. Kiaran McLaughlin took the chance of going on to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and it all went wrong. Alpha acted up before the race and never got involved. McLaughlin passed up the Grade 2 Remsen but instead of racing at Gulfstream, he shipped back up from Florida for the Count Fleet. Can't imagine he would have done that last year. Alpha and Ramon Dominguez wound up pressing the pace three wide around both turns and took over turning for home. He drew away in the stretch to a 2 1/2-length victory in the good time of 1:42.83 for the 1 mile and 70 yards. Being by Bernardini out of a dam by Nijinsky II, distance should not be a limitation for him down the road. This Saturday's Ruthless Stakes has attracted a deep field of 10 going six furlongs for three-year-old fillies. It is extremely competitive with at least a half dozen having a good chance of winning. The depth and quality of the Ruthless is certainly a sign of better things to come. Discreet Cat has continued to impress with his first crop of runners with a big week of results on the track. Down at Gulfstream Park, Todd Pletcher sent out Discreet Dancer to an easy win going a one-turn mile against first-level allowance/optional claiming foes which has now opened up all sorts of possibilities for him to go two turns as well as one turn. Sent off as the 4-5 favorite from post nine, he cruised to the front with Javier Castellano aboard and just won as he pleased. Coming off a track-record debut going 5 1/2 furlongs, Discreet Dancer showed new dimensions settling beautifully and finishing strong. Maybe Tampa Bay Downs will be next up for him. Out at Santa Anita, Eoin Harty saddled Out of Bounds to victory in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes and gave Discreet Cat his first stakes winner. Stalking the pace with Garrett Gomez, Out of Bounds rallied down the lane and wore down Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint winner Secret Circle to win by a half-length in the good time of 1:34.56 for the mile on the dirt. Then, on Wednesday at Aqueduct, Evasive Cat broke his maiden second time out by more than five lengths going 5 1/2 furlongs in the fast time of 1:04.14, with the last three-sixteenths of a mile covered in :18.03. With some of the lucrative stakes races coming up at Aqueduct, the McLaughlin trainee should be a major factor.
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