Following the cancellation of Aqueduct’s Thanksgiving card due to forecast high winds, the $200,000 Fall Highweight H. (G3) was transferred to Sunday.
The redrawn version features most of the original entrants, except the two who ran in Wednesday night’s Fabulous Strike at Penn National. Firenze Fire, who would have been the 134-pound highweight here, opted to crush his foes there instead. Lewisfield, sixth in the Fabulous Strike, is the other absentee.
Gulfstream Park Sprint (G3) winner Recruiting Ready remains the top weight actually set to run, shouldering 132 pounds in the wake of his tour de force in the Bet on Sunshine last out. The Stan Hough trainee is now drawn a little wider out in post 7 and picks up Irad Ortiz Jr.
Strike Power, on the other hand, finds himself drawn more toward the inside in post 2, and he too gets a new rider in Javier Castellano. The Grade 3 veteran, who went off form after edging Recruiting Ready for second in the True North (G2), enters off a freshening for Mark Hennig.
The newcomer to Fall Highweight 2.0, the Linda Rice-trained Nicodemus, has not been seen since his fourth in the July 6 John A. Nerud (G2). Assigned 129 pounds (the second highest impost), the Westchester (G3) hero was also fourth in the True North. Stan the Man, runner-up in the Westchester and unraced since his True North fifth, renews rivalry.
Firenze Fire’s class-climbing stablemate from the Jason Servis barn, Happy Farm, moves to the middle in post 4 but keeps Jose Lezcano. Challedon third Wonderful Light switches to Joel Rosario, and Seethisquick reverts to J.R. Martinez. The 122-pound lightweight No Distortion, initially on the rail, has now landed in the outside post 8.
The two turf stakes scheduled for Thanksgiving will be run next week – the Central Park for juveniles on December 6 and the Winter Memories for sophomore fillies on December 7.
