The attention steeped on soon-to-be sophomores picks up business Saturday when the Remsen Stakes headlines a trio of 2-year-old stakes. Aqueduct’s $250,000 Grade 2 Remsen at a mile and one-eighth is joined on the national docket by the $125,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship over 7 furlongs at Laurel and the $125,000 Inaugural Stakes at 6 furlongs in the first leg of the Tampa Bay Derby series.

Kentucky Derby trail implications figure to be more prevalent in the Remsen, but we’ll begin our look in post-time order.

Tampa Bay Downs: Race 2 | $125,000 Inaugural Stakes | 1:00 pm ET

The Gulf Coast trail includes the Inaugural at 6 furlongs, the Pasco at 7 furlongs and the Sam. F. Davis and Tampa Bay Derby both at 1-1/16 miles. Seven colts/geldings will contest the series opener, including stakes-placed THUNDER CHUCK for Jorge Delgado and SUPER KICK for Eoin Harty. But it’s romping Gulfstream debut winner SOLITUDE DUDE for Saffie Joseph Jr. who will be a standout on the toteboard. The $300,000 2-year-old purchase by Yauponi is bred to sprint on both sides and appears well-placed for the natural rise in class. Joseph adds second-start Gulfstream maiden graduate LANGVAD.

Six of these 7 have made the lead early in sprints prior, the other has 3 times pressed from second in the early calls. Expect a strong tempo. Given that, the slight cut-back in distance for SOLITUDE DUDE as well as UNCLE CHUCK – the latter from the 6-1/2 furlong Saratoga Special and same-tripped Juvenile Sprint at Gulfstream, should prove beneficial. While THUNDER CHUCK has sprinted in all 4 starts, the Good Magic colt has as much license on pedigree as any in this field to handle the more important distances in the Tampa series down the road.

SUPER KICK won a sales-restricted maiden sprint at Churchill in September, but failed to threaten in a 4-horse Bowman Mill at Keeneland when third. He should find at last a couple better here as well.

The picks: 7-SOLITUDE DUDE, 3-THUNDER CHUCK, 4-SUPER KICK, 2-LANGVAD


Laurel Park: Race 6 | $125,000 Maryland Juvenile Championship | 2:26 pm ET

Ten juveniles in search of their first stakes glory match up in this 7-furlong sprint that starts to form the Preakness path at Laurel. That venue hosts the middle jewel in the Triple Crown this year and next during the reconstruction at Pimlico.

The field lacks a standout in the past performances, though TARTABULL was a notable third at Saratoga to next-out stakes winner Ewing and then fifth behind eventual national stakes players Talkin and Further Ado. Trainer Chad Summers brought the $310,000 Tapit-Anna’s Bandit colt to Laurel on October 25 to break his maiden with a green rally. He’s trained well since and may be starting to figure things out. WORKER BEE has won 2 of 3 for high-percentage trainer Gary Capuano and will be asked to tote 8 additional pounds from his prior score just 15 days ago. He figures to be in the mix every step of the way in a race that has a surprising lack of early pace for a 7-furlong juvenile stakes. Dominant maiden claiming debut winner BIKER BALEY may be the only other runner with designs on the front. Both deserve a look.

CODE OF SILENCE is a lukewarm 7-2 morning line favorite off a Nov. 16 maiden breaker in his fourth start for Tim Keefe. He has given himself a lot to do with a series of slow or poor starts, but perhaps the blinkers on last time helped focus his abilities in the late going.

The picks: 2-WORKER BEE, 8-TARTABULL, 4-BIKER BALEY, 5-CODE OF SILENCE


Aqueduct: Race 9 | $250,000 Grade 2 Remsen | 3:08 pm ET

The rematch between PALADIN and RENEGADE, who disputed an Oct. 17 maiden mile at Aqueduct, will be front and center in this field of 12. Since that race, in which I thought RENEGADE ran best, its PALADIN who has posted 5 workouts to a mere 2 for RENEGADE. That said, it’s quite likely Paladin will be fitter for the stretchout in distance and best his rival Saturday over a mile and one-eighth. That PALADIN gets to easily save ground in post 2 with a short run to the first turn only helps in his head-to-head with RENEGADE, who starts from the 9-hole. PALADIN trainer Chad Brown was runner-up here a few years back with fellow Gun Runner colt Sierra Leone.

Remsen history offers no pause for these 1-turn milers stepping up in class. In the last dozen years, 11 Remsen winners exited 1-turn races. And note the last 4 winners of this race stepped up from maiden or allowance races.

Todd Pletcher has won the Remsen 3 times (2005, 2012, 2021), but is 1 for his last 14 in this race. He’ll send out RENEGADE as well as the Nov. 9 Aqueduct maiden special weight 1-2 finishers COURTING and GRITTINESS. You want to love COURTING, a $5 million full-brother to star racemare Clairiere, but it’s notable that he was ridden out in that 1-turn mile victory against just 3 rivals at 1-10 odds. His back-to-back 94 BRIS late pace figures are very solid against this crew, but pale to the 104 and 100 that RENEGADE and PALADIN earned, respectively, over the same trip.

The wide draw for TALKIN in post 11 makes his task significantly more difficult. His Champagne Stakes runner-up to the fleet Napoleon Solo wasn’t visually overwhelming on his ledger, but we saw trainer Danny Gargan win the 2022 and 2023 Remsen editions with sons of Good Magic like this.

The picks: 2-PALADIN, 6-COURTING, 9-RENEGADE, 11-TALKIN