The Fool Handicap (Grade 3)- $200.000 Purse
AQU- For Four Year Olds and Upward
Six Furlongs on the Inner Dirt
March 12, 2016
The 12th edition of the Fool Handicap attracts a large field of ten (originally eleven) at the Big A this weekend. These older sprinters will be trying to duplicate the amazing race put forth last year by Threshold’s Kiwiw Ripoff, who set a new track record that day in a time of 1:08.56. That record still stands at the track and can be a lofty goal for this year’s field. There is a big difference between last year’s running and this year’s race as last year there was a twelve pound differential between the high weight (Domination Nation at 125 pounds) and the low weights at 113 pounds. Kiwiw Ripoff was at 115 pounds. Despite being such a high weight, Domination Nation was a strong second. This year, Domination Nation is back at The Fool Handicap, and will ironically now be the low weight, at 118 pounds. He is one of two running at that weight, Two 4 One, who also ran in last year’s race, is the other. High weights only run at 120 for this race, so we should not expect weight to be such a major factor in this year’s event. Let’s take a look at those who contest this race.
#1- Cool Daddy (Brave, ridden by K Carmouche)- A winner of four of this last eight, Cool Daddy is looking to finally win his first graded stake. In his prior three attempts at the graded level, he has been second, third, and fourth. Those performances also sum up the career of this colt, who even when he is not winning, he seems to always end up in the money. He has picked up some kind of check for his trainer in each of his last ten starts, so you have to love that consistency. One of those finishes was a third in the Grade 1 Malibu, so he has raced against the best in the game before. In another interesting footnote, he is also no stranger to starting on the rail, as this will be the fourth time in six starts that he will do so, and all of those were in fields of at least seven.
#2- Nefarious Leadership- Scratched
#3- Money For Charley (Blushing Meadows, ridden by G Saez)- Like Cool Daddy, Money For Charley also knows how to be in the mix at the end, picking up some kind of check for his trainer in eleven of his twelve career starts. His last three starts have seen him finish in the third position. None of his three career wins have been at the stake level, one of which was a graded attempt, in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore last summer at MTH. He’s always been close though, with his best stake run being a second in the $100.000 Tale Of The Cat at beautiful Saratoga. There’s no reason to think that he will fail to be with the leaders at the end again.
#4- Masterpiece Five (Buddhabase, ridden by M Luzzi)- This five year old by the great Five Daddy Five has had a career worthy of his name, with career earnings approaching $1,000.000. A win here would put him over that hump. The two-time graded stake winner recently switched hands from Razorback Racing to Buddhabase in a private sale in the amount of $225.010. That was late last year, and in his two starts running in his new silks, Masterpiece Five has failed to hang around in two races over a mile in which he set the early fractions. He figures to be more competitive this year, and his work times at this distance do not show much of, if any, change from where they were last year. The last time he won was on KYD day in the Grade 2 CD.
#5- Domination Nation (Double J Stables, ridden by T Rice)- Last year, Domination Nation had to carry ten to twelve more pounds in this race, and ended up second. He returns this year with much of that weight off his back, carrying 118 pounds here. Carrying a higher weight was a theme to his 2015 season, which actually only saw him hit the track three more times that year after this race. A couple of the races that he contested where the Vosburgh and the Crosby, both Grade 1’s, and he would fail to hit the board in both. He raced once this year, in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes, and finished in an amazing 3-way dead heat for 4th, that was just .01 behind the third place finisher. Also in that dead heat was Cool Daddy. He is also just under $1,000.000 in career earnings, and this would seem like a great opportunity for him to jump over that milestone. While I do expect him to contend here, I am not sure that he is the horse to beat that he was last year.
#6- Arrest (D J C Racing Stables, ridden by J Bisono)- It won’t be the graded stakes debut for this Plucky Dogma col, but it’s been a long time since he last ran in one, having run in the Hopeful as a two year old. Most of his three year old campaign was spent running in N1X allowances. After finally getting over that condition hump, Arrest has been red hot, winning three of his last five with the two non-wins being runner-up finishes. He’s been earning SRF figures in the high 90’s in those races, so the trainer has decided to give him another crack at graded company after a year and half away from this level. This is pretty reminiscent of how Kiwiw Ripoff was faring before he won last year’s Fool Handicap, and Arrest is a very appealing horse in this field.
#8- Claim Your Prize (Axeman, ridden by Jam Rodriguez)- This six year old gelding has claimed many prizes over the course of his thirty race career, including a Grade 1 victory. That was a while ago, as you have to go back to the SA Sprint Championship in October of 2014, but it did get him to the BC Sprint that year. Those days are behind him now, but Claim Your Prize is still capable of winning big races. You don’t have to look any further back then two races ago, when he captured the $100.000 Gravesend Handicap (in a dead heat) over the likes of K T and Sweep The Event. Most recently, he was second in the Phoenix Gold Cup Handicap. He’s moving up a little from those races, but he’s been in tougher. He’s also been very consistent of late, hitting the board in nine of his last ten starts.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
