A field of 10 horses will depart from the starting gate Sunday to contest the $750,000 Cayuga Lake Special (G1) on the fast main track in New York. The race is contested over two miles — the longest distance the Sim has to offer — and the former distance of the real life Jockey Club Gold Cup in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fully half the field are 4-year-olds and among them is Brightvalr’s grade one winner Under the Neon<\/strong>. He’s already proven himself in all ages racing, having earned his grade one win in the two-mile Hit Man Stakes in mid-December. The son of Quality Road (a scratchbred, Kingmambo x Tapit) followed that just under four weeks later with a runner-up performance in the Buckeye Stayer (G2). He enters the Cayuga Lake with more time between starts and is a danger here. One minor quibble for this consistent closer (he’s won or finished second in all seven starts since being gelded) is the declining speed figures since earning a 115 for a second-place finish in the No Surrender Stakes (G2) at 14 furlongs in late November. Since then, he’s put up figures of 111 and 108. Perhaps the added rest will help in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other three previous grade one winners in the field come from the group of older horses which includes last year’s EOY award winner in this division, Harrylan’s Street Cap Tap<\/strong>. Though the 6-year-old son of Tapit won this divisional award, he has yet to race at two miles in 23 career starts, so he remains a bit of a question mark there. He enters this off a dismal performance here in New York last December, finishing 25 lengths back while eighth in the 1 3\/4-mile Big Apple (G1) on an off track he may not have liked. His top two career speed figures of 119 and 117, earned in a 10 1\/2- and 12-furlong race, respectively, may indicate the 16 furlongs of the Cayuga Lake may challenge his stamina. He does have two grade three wins at 14 furlongs, but has yet to really challenge in two grade one races at that distance. Still the 116 speed figure earned in winning the 2024 New Orleans Stayer (G3) says something for the other side of the argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corza’s Barbecue Shape<\/strong> comes into the Cayuga Lake off of consecutive fifth-place finishes in Under the Neon’s Hit Man Stakes and the 2025 renewal of the 14-furlong New Orleans Stayer. Heading into last year’s edition of this race, the then 4-year-old son of Oasis Dream had finished sixth in a 13-furlong grade three race on turf and won the Old Man (G2). His speed figures though, are nearly the same for his two preps for the Cayuga Lake last year and this year, so he could be primed for another big run. On the negative side, the confirmed frontrunner has just three victories from 25 career starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remaining previous grade one winner is Tenpoint’s Ghoulish Delight<\/strong>, a 5-year-old son of Ghostzapper (Seattle Slew x Kingmambo on the underside of this scratchbred). He’s notched four wins from 17 starts but most notable for this weekend’s race is his lone grade one win coming in the 16-furlong Seattle Slayer last August (with Barbeque Shape finishing sixth on that date) in his only attempt at the distance. Barbeque Shape failed to gain the lead out of the gate, instead duelling with another, allowing Ghoulish Delight to close from over 16 lengths back and win by 5 1\/2 lengths at the wire. Since that race, he’s finished sixth in the Breeders’ Bowl Dirt Marathon (G1) and third in a two-mile listed stakes race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dortmund Power<\/strong> has yet to race 16 furlongs, but two of his best races came in 14-furlong dirt races. He equaled his career high speed figure of 111 when second in a 14-furlong listed stakes race last June (just missing by a half-length) and won the Grand Glitter Dirt Slayer by 9 1\/4 lengths in his most recent start. Sremel9’s 7-year-old gelded son of Power likes to race from off the pace and could be challenging for a spot on the board in the lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Derbyking’s Doggy Security<\/strong> has won his most recent two races and three of his last four, but the 5-year-old son of Maximum Security is stepping up in class from a string of allowance races to make his grade one debut on Sunday. While he has shown enough stamina to win a January 15-furlong allowance heat by four lengths, in his three previous attempts at 16 furlongs he has displayed an affinity for backing up badly in the stretch. Further, in his four prior races in graded company, he finished no better than a well beaten fifth, while coming home eighth of nine and 29 lengths back in the 16-furlong Cowboy Handicap (G3). Stamina and class issues aside, his top speed figure of 102 seems a bit light here as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the field is composed of 4-year-olds and they are an interesting bunch. Amir1605’s Streetorial<\/strong> won a grade 3, two-mile race by 17 1\/2 lengths in October and will be racing against older horses in a stakes race for the first time Sunday. (He finished second to a 5-year-old in a 12-furlong allowance race in April of his sophomore season.) Sandwiched around that spectacular win was a second-place finish in the Chatterbox Stakes (G1) and a third-place in the Miles and Miles Stakes (G2) last time out. His top speed figure of 112 from the Chatterbox puts the son of Street Sense squarely in the mix here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wouldn’t really be a graded stakes marathon dirt race in the Sim without a son or daughter of Curlin and here we have Padrebri’s Sea Dragon Hunter<\/strong>, who won the Miles and Miles over Streetorial in his last outing. Prior to that he was third in the Silver Stakes (G2), for which he earned his career-best speed figure of 109, that coming after a four race winning streak last spring and summer. My gut feeling is he doesn’t hit the board here, but it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hacktivist<\/strong> is Tenpoint’s other runner and the son of Quality Road is an interesting prospect in this spot. Now, when you’re entered in a 16-furlong grade one and you haven’t raced in either a graded stakes race or beyond 12 furlongs there are quite naturally going to be class and stamina concerns. In his last outing he handled the class jump from the allowance ranks to stakes racing just fine, winning a 12-furlong listed stakes. His speed figure of 111 was a slight top from his 109 in a 10-furlong race in his previous start, which to me says it’s certainly possible he hasn’t reached the limit of his distance capabilities. That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel’s Into Bragi<\/strong> displays just the sort of speed figure pattern of Hacktivist. He raced to speed figures of 103 and 107 when stretching out from 10 to 12 furlongs, (Hacktivist 109\/111, same distances). Into Bragi has raced twice since then and stretched out successfully both times, winning at 14 furlongs by 11 1\/2 lengths and 16 furlongs by 15 1\/2, albeit in allowance company. His speed figures also dipped from the 12-furlong race and he’s entered here with paired up 103s as he makes his stakes race debut. He’s interesting here but perhaps needs more seasoning in stakes races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for picks, I’ll put the rail drawn Under the Neon on top at 6\/1, and use Hacktivist (11\/1) and Streetorial (10\/1) underneath. Best of luck to all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A field of 10 horses will depart from the starting gate Sunday to contest the $750,000 Cayuga Lake Special (G1)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69861"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69870,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69861\/revisions\/69870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}