OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Since his highly successful 2-year-old year, in which he won a pair of New York-bred stakes, Shipsational has lost 19 straight races. In his career, he is 0 for 13 at Aqueduct.
But to listen to trainer Eddie Barker tell it, the now 6-year-old Shipsational is in career form entering a first-level open-company allowance race Sunday that serves as the feature on Aqueduct’s nine-race card.
“He might run the best race he’s run in his life,” Barker said Friday. “Right now, he’s running the numbers he was running as a 2-year-old.”
Since being turned out last May after a sixth-place finish in a stakes at Finger Lakes, Shipsational has come back with three solid efforts. He was second in this condition in November and third in this condition in January, a race that produced four-next out winners including the top two finishers, Crazy Mason and Radio Red. Most recently, Shipsational finished second behind Sheriff Bianco in the Say Florida Sandy Stakes for New York-breds on Feb. 15.
“He might have been a little too close” to the pace, Barker said about the Say Florida Sandy. “He’s training good enough to win, it’s just a matter of getting the right trip.”
This nine-horse field appears pretty wide open. David Aragona, the New York Racing Association linemaker, has six of the nine runners pegged between 4-1 and 6-1.
Ignite the Light, Antonio of Venice, and What’s Up Bro finished second, third, and fifth in the first-level allowance race that Radio Red won by 4 1/2 lengths on Feb. 15.
What’s Up Bro, trained by Linda Rice, had his second straight troubled trip, forced to steady repeatedly down the backstretch while finishing fifth. Prior to that, he stumbled badly at the start in a race last July in which he finished last.
Ignite the Light, trained by Rick Dutrow, has a win and two seconds in this condition, and his last three Beyer Speed Figure are his best. He’s run on Lasix in all three of those races and gets to use the anti-bleeding medication again Sunday.
Printrack, an eight-time winner at Aqueduct, goes first off the $50,000 claim for Jamie Ness. War Stride earned a career-best 88 Beyer when beaten a head for $25,000 claiming on Jan. 30.
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