Quotes from NYRA releases

Saturday’s Cigar Mile day card at Aqueduct will have – oddly enough – a distinctly Mid-Atlantic flavor.

The card will feature two Midlantic-breds in the Grade 2 Remsen for two-year-olds, three based in the Mid-Atlantic in the Grade 2 Demoiselle for two-year-old fillies, and no fewer than four runners bred in this region in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile.

Start in the Cigar Mile, where Maryland-bred Post Time heads a strong contingent of runners bred in the region. Post Time, runner-up in last month’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile is the 7-2 second choice on the morning line.

“That was a huge effort. We were delighted with the result. Sheldon gave him a great ride – good trip,” trainer Brittany Russell said of Post Time’s Breeders’ Cup outing. “The winner ran huge that day and we just couldn’t get to him. Overall, we thought it was a huge race for Post Time, and it was good to see him run a big race like that and come out of it as good as he did.”

The late-running son of Frosted will have regular pilot Sheldon Russell, Brittany Russell’s husband, in the irons. Post Time has won a pair of graded stakes and has placed in three Grade 1 events. He has earned nearly $1.2 million for Ellen Charles’ Hillwood Stable while winning nine of 14 starts.

Mullikin, the third-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and a Grade 2 winner in his own right, has been installed as the 3-1 morning line favorite for trainer Rodolphe Brisset and will have Flavien Prat up.

Beyond Mullikin, Post Time will also have to contend with New Jersey-bred Book’em Danno (4-1), West Virginia-bred Coastal Mission (12-1), and Virginia-bred Repo Rocks (30-1).

Book’em Danno, trained by Derek Ryan for Atlantic Six Racing LLC, has six wins and a shade over $1 million in earnings from 10 career starts. Notably, he is 4-for-4 going six furlongs or less, 2-for-4 going seven furlongs, and 0-for-2 at the Cigar distance of one mile. He achieved his top win in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens going seven furlongs.

Ryan indicated he will utilize the Cigar Mile as a measuring stick to see if Book’em Danno is better suited for the six-furlong Group 2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint or the nine-furlong Group 1 Saudi Cup in February at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.

Coastal Mission earned his first graded win – and put himself past $1 million in earnings – in his most recent start in the Grade 3 Forty Niner. Owner-trainer Jeff Runco had bypassed a much easier spot – the $300,000 Sam Huff West Virginia Breeders Classic for West Virginia-breds – to run in the Forty Niner with an eye towards this event as the ultimate seasonal goal.

“We bred and raised him. We’ve been there with him since birth, and you can’t have a more rewarding feeling than breeding one and winning a graded stake with him,” Runco said. “It’s the first time it’s happened in my career. I’d won a graded stakes before but never with my own homebred. He just guts it out. It’s a great thing to see a horse that digs in every time to give you their all.”

Arnaldo Bocachica will ride.

Longshot Repo Rocks will try to avenge back-to-back losses to Coastal Mission. He finished a close second to that rival in the Parx Dirt Mile in September and then was fourth in the Forty Niner.

Trained by Jamie Ness for Double B Racing Stables, he has 10 wins in his career, two in graded company, and is on the cusp of $1 million in earnings. Ruben Silvera will ride.

Maryland-bred Studlydoright (9-2) and Pennsylvania-bred Surfside Moon (20-1) will both try their luck in the Grade 2 Remsen for two-year-olds.

Studlydoright, a Nyquist colt trained by Jerry Robb for David Hughes, has three wins from six outings and was second in the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga in July. Most recently he won the one-mile Nashua over the Aqueduct strip in his first try with blinkers. Regular pilot Xavier Perez is up.

“I was happy with it,” said Robb of the Nashua. “I’ve been waiting to run long, hoping that is what he wanted and thinking that is what he wanted. The Remsen is even farther, so I’m looking forward to it.” 

He added that he thought that addition of blinkers “helped him quite a bit. He was definitely more aggressive.”

Surfside Moon, trained by Chuck Lawrence for Manor Stable and Mair Lee Stables, broke his maiden in his third outing on the turf at Delaware Park. Since then, he’s run fifth in the off-the-turf Laurel Futurity and sixth in the grassy Awad Stakes at Aqueduct.

Kendrick Carmouche will ride.

Finally, the Demoiselle includes three runners based in the Mid-Atlantic, though none bred here.

Post Time’s trainer Brittany Russell will send out Laurel Park debut winner Michelle (20-1) for her second career start for Nice Guys Stables. Katie Davis will ride.

Two Parx-based runners also are entered. John Servis has Five a Side (20-1) for longtime owner Main Line Racing Stable and Avalon Racing. The Spun to Run filly won her third career start to graduate and then finished fifth in Aqueduct’s Tempted Stakes. Joel Rosario is up.

And trainer Uriah St. Lewis, always up to take a swing, will send out Tip Line (30-1). The Nyquist filly won at first asking but then was seventh in the Tempted. Francisco Martinez will ride.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST OFF TO THE RACES RADIO!