The $150,000 Discovery for 3-year-olds on Sunday at Belmont at Aqueduct is Batten Down’s race to lose. He seems to have an edge over his eight rivals in just about every applicable handicapping category.
The Discovery, which will be run over 1 1/8 miles, is one of three stakes on the card. It’s drawn a competitive field, with Sir Barton winner Corporate Power making his first start since the Travers and four-time stakes winner Copper Tax returning to the races after having last run in June.
But the horse to beat is Batten Down, who not only has recency over both of those key rivals, but also has the chance to control the Discovery pace.
He’s used his speed to become this field’s lone graded stakes winner, taking the Grade 3 Ohio Derby in June. And that race came at this distance, so Batten Down is proven at 1 1/8 miles.
Batten Down also owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Speed Figure, a 99 for his wire-to-wire win in the Bourbon Flight Stakes on Sept. 21 at Churchill Downs.
As for pedigree, it does not get much better than Batten Down’s family tree. He is by the prolific sire Tapit and his dam is the champion Close Hatches, a five-time Grade 1 winner who earned more than $2.7 million. She’s been a producer, too, as Batten Down is a full brother to the Grade 2 winners Tacitus, who made $4.2 million, and Scylla, who was to have run Saturday at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
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Junior Alvarado has the mount on Batten Down for trainer Bill Mott.
Turnback the Alarm
Brazilian import Evidencias will be returning to the distance of her most significant win when she gets back to racing at 1 1/8 miles in the $150,000 Turnback the Alarm. The race drew five fillies and mares.
Evidencias was a Group 1 winner at this distance in October 2022. The start came on turf and she’s since proven herself on dirt, taking the Obeah at Delaware Park in her most recent race, on Sept. 18.
Evidencias has been flattered since, with runner-up Venti Valentine coming back to win the $250,000 Empire Distaff on the Empire Showcase Day card at Aqueduct. In addition, Hot Fudge Warrior, who was sixth in the Obeah, came back to take a $30,000 starter allowance at Delaware.
Evidencias used her closing kick to win the Obeah and the added ground she picks up off the 1 1/16-mile race might get her to settle into a stalking position off Movie Moxy, a fresh horse stretching out from a mile, and Signal From Noise, who breaks from the rail.
Signal From Noise was Grade 2-placed in her last start when running third in the Beldame. The first- and second-place finishers from the race were both to have run back Saturday at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Signal From Noise was making her first start at 1 1/8 miles in the Beldame. She is a daughter of Arrogate and the mare Holiday Soiree, a stakes winner of more than $400,000 who has produced a Grade 1 winner in Vahva.
Vahva was to have run Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Pumpkin Pie
Nic’s Style, who ran second to one of the leaders of the filly and mare sprint division in her last start, will seek to nail down her first stakes win in the $150,000 Pumpkin Pie. The seven-furlong race drew eight fillies and mares.
Nic’s Style will get good support for her runner-up finish to Ways and Means last out in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on Sept. 29 at Aqueduct. Ways and Means was to have run back Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Nic’s Style will be making her second start in a stakes in the Pumpkin Pie.
Nic’s Style won the first three starts of her career by more than 22 lengths before advancing to stakes company in the Gallant Bloom. She set the pace that day and was beaten four lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 93, the best last-race number in the Pumpkin Pie
Nic’s Style will break from post 5 and is situated just outside one of her primary pace rivals, St. Benedicts Prep. Another speed rival, Khali Magic, starts from post 8.
The pace could be testing for Nic’s Style, who also is picking up a tad more distance from the 6 1/2 furlongs of the Gallant Bloom.
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The pace also could be testing for St. Benedicts Prep, who is a specialist at the demanding distance of seven furlongs. She’s made her last four starts at the distance and won three of them. Khali Magic was third in a seven-furlong race last out in what was her first start in more than three months.
A quick pace could set the table for several other well-matched rivals, including Just Katherine. She has class appeal as a runner who was Grade 2-placed earlier in her career and who has been lining up against such rivals as Raging Sea and Free Like a Girl, the all-time richest Louisiana-bred with earnings of more than $1.9 million.
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