After capturing the Maryland Million Turf at Laurel in October and prepping for this start with a seven furlong effort against optional claimers at Aqueduct, Broadway Producer (5-2) tries nine other Maryland-breds at 1-1/6th miles on the main track. Trainer John Terranova will use Dale Beckner to guide the Not For Love 5-year-old, who has 15 in-the-money finishes out of twenty-two starts.
“He didn’t run very well last time and he came back with an abscess in his foot,” Capuano said. “It must have been stinging him in the race because he ran so poorly. The winner (Researcher) was really nice but not to run second was disappointing. He missed a few days of training but is doing well leading up to this spot. He is a good horse but sometimes has trouble relaxing. We are hoping to keep up the winning ways.”
The filly Sweet Goodbye (9-2) has won five straight including the Maryland Million Oaks and Northern Dancer Stakes, the latter against open company. Chris Grove is likely to scratch from this spot and run his star at Aqueduct on Sunday in the $75,000 Ladies Handicap.
Others to watch include stakes winners Easy Red (6-1), who won this race two years ago, and Headsandtales (10-1) as well as stakes veterans Dr Rico (8-1) and Diamond David (10-1).
Rounding out the field will be Poppy’s Punkin (15-1), Furrariat (20-1) and Shining Punch (30-1).