With undefeated 2-year-old champ Vindication injured and off the Triple Crown trail, the road to the May 3 Kentucky Derby is wide open. But is it wide enough for a contender to emerge from Aqueduct’s winter meet?
We’ll get a better idea of that possibility in today’s $75,000 Whirlaway Stakes at the Big A, which lured a field of seven 3-year-old colts racing a mile-and-a-sixteenth over the inner dirt track. The strip figures to have plenty of moisture in it after yesterday’s blizzard.
Morning-line favorite Grey Comet, the unbeaten New York-bred who’s coming off a gate-to-wire score against open company in the Jan. 4 Count Fleet here, and Torre and Zim, a 41/4-length allowance winner over the inner Dec. 19, promise fireworks from the get-go. How they handle the pace scenario should determine the outcome.
Grey Comet, by Distinctive Pro, isn’t bred to go long. But after winning a pair of sprints, his last two victories came going two turns over the IDT. In the Count Fleet, after dueling for the early lead, he was pulling away at the wire to win by a length.
Yankee fans have been all over Torre and Zim since his first start, when he broke his maiden at Belmont Park as the 7-5 choice. After running second to the talented Silver Squire next time out, he flashed speed from the start before pulling clear in his allowance romp going a two-turn mile.