Although he would have drawn into last week’s Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) from the also-eligible list, Caribou Club didn’t make the trip to California after being excluded from the main body of the field. The multiple graded stakes winner instead will make his next outing in Saturday’s $100,000 Artie Schiller over one mile of Aqueduct’s inner turf.
A three-time stakes winner from five starts this term, Caribou Club enters off a narrow victory over Frontier Market in the Baltimore-Washington Turf Cup (G3) at Laurel on September 21.
Another Fair Hill-based contender is Just Howard, who landed the Oceanport (G3) at Monmouth in July and missed by only a length when fifth in the Baltimore-Washington Turf Cup.
“He’s doing well. He wasn’t beaten by much last time and really showed he belonged so it’s encouraging to see how he’ll move forward here off that effort,” trainer Graham Motion said. “This is a race that’s been on my radar for a while for him. I know he only has the one victory this year, but he’s really been consistent and hopefully he can break through and run his race.”
There figures to be ample speed in the Artie Schiller, courtesy of graded veterans Voodoo Song, Dr. Edgar, and Gidu.
Also on Aqueduct’s Saturday card is the $100,000 Atlantic Beach, a six-furlong turf dash for two-year-olds. Among the full field are Freewheeler, Embolden, and Jack and Noah, all of whom chased eventual Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint (G2) winner Four Wheel Drive in last month’s Futurity (G3) at Belmont.
