2024 Carter Handicap Contenders at Aqueduct

Carter Handicap Field Head by Grade 3-winner Super Chow

Dual Grade 3-winner Super Chow (Lea Farms) will vie for his third consecutive graded stakes victory in the 126th running of the Grade 2, $300,000 Carter Handicap, a seven-furlong sprint for older horses, at Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday, April 6.

The Carter, slated as race 4, is one of five stakes on Saturday's 11-race card which is headlined by the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial in Race 10. Bolstering the Wood Memorial Day card is the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle in Race 8; Grade 3, $175,000 Distaff in Race 6; and the Listed $150,000 Bay Shore in Race 9. First post is 11:30 a.m. Eastern.

Trained by Jorge Delgado, the 4-year-old Lord Nelson colt enters from a gate-to-wire score in the six-furlong Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap on March 2 here. Super Chow emerged a 1 1/4-length victor over Manny Wah, who he beat by 4 1/4-lengths in similar frontrunning fashion in the local seven-furlong Grade 3 Toboggan in February.

Delgado said Super Chow, who caught off-tracks in the Tom Fool and Toboggan, could appreciate a faster surface on Saturday.

"He's naturally fast. He has natural speed from the gate, and I believe a fast track would help him," said Delgado. "If he can catch a fast track, I believe he would enjoy it more."

Jockey Maddy Olver, who earned her first graded win in the Toboggan and doubled her tally in the Tom Fool, is also the regular work rider for Super Chow. She was aboard Super Chow for a half-mile breeze in 50.84 seconds Saturday over the Belmont dirt training track.

"I ask her all types of questions, and she always has the right answer. Thankfully for me, it is always something better," said Delgado. "He's in really good shape, he's a more mature horse, he seems to have grown a little bit and gotten more muscular."

Super Chow was a four-time stakes winner prior to making the grade, capturing the Bowman Mill at Keeneland and Inaugural at Tampa Bay Downs in 2022 along with last year's Limehouse and Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park. He finished third in the 2022 Grade 2 Saratoga Special and second in last year's Grade 3 Swale at Gulfstream.

Bred by Spendthrift Farm, Super Chow, out of the Warrior's Reward mare Bonita Mia, is a full-brother to sophomore filly Princess Indy, winner of the Sorority at Monmouth Park in August.

Super Chow was a $75,000 purchase at the 2022 OBS Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training and holds a 17-8-4-4 record that has banked $686,900.

Olver will retain the mount from post 4 with Super Chow carrying 120 pounds.

Hillwood Stable's Post Time [post 3, Sheldon Russell, 120 pounds] improved his already near-perfect record in his first graded stakes attempt, coming from four lengths back to win the seven-furlong Grade 3 General George by three lengths on February 17 at Laurel Park.

Trained by Brittany Russell, the Maryland-bred Post Time is 7-for-8 lifetime with a field-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure earned when closing to win by 6 1/2-lengths in the restricted one-mile Jennings at Laurel prior to his General George conquest.

"He doesn't like to be rushed a whole lot, but going seven furlongs, you can't let him get too far back," said Russell, who saddled last year's then-Grade 1 Carter winner Doppelganger. "Post Time has been very effective going seven-eighths. This makes sense, he is doing good and it is not a tough ship."

The 4-year-old Frosted gray has raced away from Laurel twice, finishing third in the seven-furlong Perryville in October at Keeneland after a victory sprinting six furlongs in an open optional-claimer against elders in September at Pimlico Race Course.

"It'll be interesting to see what he does on the road, going seven-eighths against better horses, especially now when he is rounded back into form," said Russell.

Bred by Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Dr. Brooke Bowman & Milton P. Higgins III, Post Time, out of the graded-stakes placed Fairbanks mare Vielsalm, was an $85,000 purchase at the 2021 Fasig Tipton Midlantic sale. He has banked $417,910 in earnings through a record of 8-7-0-1.

Ten Strike Racing's New York-bred Whittington Park [post 2, Kendrick Carmouche, 118 pounds] enters off a triumph in the state-bred Haynesfield going a one-turn mile on February 24 here, closing from 5 1/2-lengths back in fifth-of-six to win by a half-length, earning a career best 99 Beyer.

Trainer Jeremiah Englehart said the 5-year-old Midnight Lute horse impressed him with the performance.

"I was watching the race from Florida, we were on vacation with the family and I was in a room by myself thinking about how the goal was to try to get stakes placed," Englehart recalled. "So, I went through the race thinking `Alright he has to do this to run third,' then towards the end I was like, `he can win this thing.' It was a nice surprise."

Whittington Park, who entered the Haynesfield off a one-mile open-company allowance triumph here on January 13, looks to make the grade in the Carter.

"If there was another state-bred race it would probably be a bit more appetizing, but timing is important, too. This time of year, you want to take what is on the table," said Englehart. "Right now, it might be a spot worth giving him a shot."

A homebred for Ten Strike Racing's Marshall Gramm and Clay Sanders, Whittington Park is out of the winning Forestry mare See the Forest. Whittington Park is a half-brother to Looms Boldly, winner of last year's Damon Runyon here, and Critical Value, who won stakes on the NYRA-circuit in the 2020 Bouwerie and 2019 Maid of the Mist.

Whittington Park boasts a lifetime record of 17-6-1-5 with $335,810 in earnings.

Lugamo Racing Stable's Grade 3-winner Petulante [post 5, Joel Rosario, 118 pounds], enters off a third in the one-mile Stymie here on March 2, beaten a half-length by stablemate Kinetic Sky for trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr.

The 5-year-old Arrogate gray's Stymie effort came off a nearly nine-month layoff dating to a win in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile in June for his former conditioner Victor Barboza, Jr.

Petulante boasts a perfect on-the-board record that includes a 9 1/4-length graduation on debut when sprinting 6 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream Park in June 2022.

Out of the Uncle Mo mare Auntjenn, Petulante was a $40,000 purchase at the 2021 OBS Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training. He has banked $254,555 through a lifetime record of 7-4-2-1.

Rounding out the field is graded-stakes placed Castle Chaos [post 1, Dylan Davis, 118 pounds] who cuts back in distance after a distant sixth in the Stymie for trainer Robert Falcone, Jr. He entered the Stymie off after a narrow nose defeat in the one-mile Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper at Gulfstream on January 27 following a third in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile Handicap presented by NYRA Bets on December 2.

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