Aqueduct Notes

Been a good week for Pletcher with five winners at the Big A, including Irving Rules ($8.30) in the 7th on Saturday. I think I've mentioned that the Toddster fares pretty well with maiden claimers, a category one might not associate him with - he's 28% (28 for 100) over the last year.

Chad Brown is five for eight at the meet after Saginaw won the off-the-turf 8th. There were 11 scratches in this race leaving five runners, and this type of affair is Exhibit A in my argument in favor of synthetic tracks. While I accept all the arguments regarding the problems caused by the surfaces with respect to determining Eclipse Awards, the 99% of Saturday cards that are not Breeders' Cup days or Super Saturdays are the bread and butter of the sport, and I still don't see why they wouldn't be better off with fast tracks and without boring speed biases on a daily basis.

Mike Hushion had two more winners on Friday, and is now six for eight at the meet.

Two winners on Saturday for David Jacobson. This is definitely one of the more interesting barns to follow as we go through the winter months. Doesn't hesitate to drop them to a level where they can win; Midwatch ($13.60), a horse over whom he was suspended for a drug positive last month, was dropping from 16K to $7500, and won for the first time ever on dirt. Jacobson also is not at all gun shy when it comes to stepping up to pay the big bucks for claims, and we've seen more than just a few of those turn out to be expensive busts. African King ($8.90) is not one of those; taken for 32K at Calder last December, this three-year old gelded son of Black Mambo was winning his fifth race in six tries since (plus a second) (and the prior one in the name of Diane Balsamo while he was serving the aforementioned suspension), earning $101,000 in the process. African King has found a happy home in the lucrative 16K Starters Handicap class with its $42,000 purse; and would seem to have a ways to go there having carried just 116 pounds on Saturday.