Of the 12 horses
entered Saturday in the Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack,
only three lack experience in graded stakes races. Yet one of them, Apriority,
is attracting considerable attention as 7-2 third choice on the morning line.
The reason? The 4-year-old son of Grand Slam has won four of his past
five starts, crowned by a near track-record-breaking performance in an
optional-claiming race March 5 at Gulfstream Park that earned a 113 Beyer Speed
Figure. Only Apriority’s stablemate, Big Drama, and 3-year-old Maclean’s
Music have posted bigger numbers this year.
Asked if he was surprised to be receiving so much interest in a race
featuring Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile runner-up Morning Line, multiple-graded
stakes winner Kensei, Aqueduct inner dirt track star Calibrachoa and Yawanna Twist,
trainer David Fawkes said “No, he’s a nice horse. I think he
deserves some attention.”
Apriority was transferred into Fawkes’ barn last fall after four
nondescript maiden races in California.
His debut for his new outfit — fifth place in a mile on yielding turf at
Calder — didn’t inspire great confidence. Neither did the
horse’s bad feet.
“His morning breezes were very good, but the first time I ran him
on the turf he wasn’t that impressive,” Fawkes said. “It was
a mediocre bunch, and he ran mediocre. The only reason we even ran him on the
turf was we couldn’t get a [dirt] race to go at Calder.”
The next race, though, was an eye-opener, a gate-to-wire score on the
front end, four lengths in front, at seven furlongs.
“Then I thought we had a pretty nice horse,” Fawkes said.
“It was a tough maiden race. Then the horse kept getting better and
better. He won back at five-eighths [of a mile]. Then we go into Gulfstream,
and we expect to go into a two-other-than [allowance race] opening weekend. He
ended up having to run a flat mile. That horse he beat, Groomedforvictory, was
a nice horse. They were older horses, more seasoned than him, going a mile, and
he stepped up to the plate.”
With that, Fawkes grew ambitious, sending Apriority across the country
for the Sunshine Millions Sprint on January 29 at Santa Anita. With jockey
Rafael Bejarano aboard, Apriority briefly lost his footing on the backstretch
and dropped off the pace before closing with a rush and missing by a head to
the talented Amazombie.
His next start was the 6 ½-furlong smasher at Gulfstream Park,
achieved despite a stumble at the start.
“We schooled him at the gate [Friday], and hopefully he stands
good and breaks good,” Fawkes said.
A Grade 1 victory against the talented Carter field would arguably give
Fawkes the two best sprinters in the country, with Big Drama, the 2010 Eclipse
Champion Sprinter.
“I’ve always liked sprint horses better than other
horses,” Fawkes said. “I’ve always liked watching a sprint
race more than a route. Does that make me a better sprint trainer? I
don’t know.”