Top Flight Stakes 2024 | Aqueduct Picks

Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred Comparative looks to add another stakes score to her graded stakes-winning resume in Sunday’s Listed $150,000 Top Flight, a nine-furlong test for older fillies and mares, at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

The Top Flight is slated as Race 3 on Sunday’s nine-race card that also features the $200,000 NYSSS Times Square in Race 5 and $200,000 NYSSS Park Avenue in Race 8. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern. 

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Trained by two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, the 4-year-old Street Sense bay finished a distant seventh last out in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Azeri on March 9 at Oaklawn Park. She entered off a prominent half-length victory in the Grade 3 Bayakoa at the same track and distance where she made the grade by holding off multiple graded stakes-placed Ice Orchid and Misty Veil. 

Comparative breezed five furlongs in 1:01.20 on April 6 at Oaklawn to complete a series of three preparatory works before shipping to New York to run at Aqueduct, where she won January’s nine-furlong Ladies and a November one-mile optional claiming tilt. 

“Comparative got here last night [Tuesday]. She got in on a plane and she’s doing well,” ​said Dustin Dugas, the New York-based assistant for Cox. “She was training very good down there at Oaklawn, so we will see if we can get lucky.” 

Comparative, out of the Bernardini mare Collective, is a full-sister to dual graded stakes-winner Shared Sense. She boasts a lifetime record of 12-5-0-3 with $420,995 in earnings. 

Manny Franco, who piloted Comparative to her wins at Aqueduct and traveled to Arkansas to ride, retains the mount from post 1. Comparative will carry a field-high 124 pounds, six pounds more than each of her four rivals.

Curragh Stables’ stakes-placed Spiked [post 4, Jose Gomez] enters off a distant sixth in an optional claimer traveling a one-turn mile here at Aqueduct on March 14.

Trained by John Terranova, the 5-year old Unified dark bay broke through the gate prior to the start. 

“The mile is probably not her. I think she prefers the two turns, one mile and an eighth,” Terranova said. “They hardly ever run good after breaking through the gate. It was just a throw out race.” 

Spiked’s current campaign began here with a third in the one-mile Heavenly Prize Invitational on February 10. A nearly 10-month layoff preceded the effort dating to a victory by a head in a local nine-furlong optional claimer in April 2023. 

“She was third first back. It was a great race. We got a good run into her and got some black type on her.” Terranova said of the Heavenly Prize Invitational. “She’s a nice filly. We expected to go forward in that next race.” 

Spiked has breezed a half-mile twice over the Belmont dirt training track since her last effort, most recently in 50 seconds flat on April 8. 

“She worked really well. She came out of that work well. She looks good and is feeling good,” Terranova added.

Out of the winning Congrats mare La Canela, Spiked, an $80,000 purchase at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, holds a record of 10-2-3-2 with $181,480 in earnings.

KimDon Racing’s graded stakes-placed Tizzy in the Sky [post 3, Kendrick Carmouche] was a closing fourth last out in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Royal Delta on February 17 at Gulfstream Park.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the 5-year-old Sky Kingdom dark bay previously placed in the one-mile Grade 3 Go for Wand, in December here. 

Tizzy in the Sky seeks her first stakes win in her fifth attempt, her best finish a neck defeat to multiple graded stakes-winner Interstatedaydream in November’s Turnback the Alarm traveling Sunday’s distance at the Big A. The game effort earned a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, matching her prior career-best effort in a 9 3/4-length victory in a nine-furlong October optional claimer at Belmont at the Big A. 

Out of the winning Tiznow mare Tiz the Tide, Tizzy in the Sky holds a record of 10-3-4-0 with $291,025 in earnings. Her three wins have come at Aqueduct and include a third-out graduation for conditioner Jose Camejo. 

Marequest and trainer Linda Rice’s stakes-placed Movie Moxy [post 5, Jose Lezcano] has hit the board in three one-turn mile events at the Big A this year, highlighted by a rally for second in the Heavenly Prize Invitational beaten 2 1/2-lengths by Saddle Up Jessie.

A winner of 5-of-31 career starts, the experienced 7-year-old Street Sense bay seeks her first stakes score off a last out allowance second to stablemate Bustin Bay on March 30 here. 

Movie Moxy was haltered for $25,000 out of a runner-up effort in January 2023 and has hit the board in 8-of-11 starts since, including an optional claiming triumph by 1 3/4 lengths over graded stakes-winner Gerrymander and multiple graded stakes-placed Venti Valentine in June at Belmont Park. 

Rounding out the field is Pura Vida Investments, Cindy M. Hutson and Brett Setzer’s Towhead [post 2, Dylan Davis] who enters off a third in a local one-mile optional claimer on March 14 for conditioner Mike Maker.

The 4-year-old Malibu Moon chestnut contested the Kentucky Oaks trail last year with off-the-board efforts in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Fantasy and Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn, in April and February, respectively.