deterministic gotham aqueduct 050924

Deterministic and jockey Joel Rosario win the Grade III Gotham at Aqueduct on March 2, 2024.

DETERMINISTIC

Races back in the Grade II Peter Pan at Aqueduct on Saturday off a disappointing eighth in the Wood Memorial. Trainer Christophe Clement used the Peter Pan to get Tonalist to the Belmont Stakes in 2014, and Tonalist went on to spoil California Chrome’s Triple Crown bid. Clement was trying to get Deterministic into the Kentucky Derby, but had to settle for this route after Deterministic, who broke his maiden first time out at Saratoga last summer, ran poorly in the Wood after a win in the Gotham. Deterministic posted a near-bullet half-mile work in 47.10 seconds in company on Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track, a breeze that Clement called “spectacular.”

Result: Never got in the game and finished fifth of six. Antiquarian won, so now it’s on to the Belmont at Saratoga on June 8 for him.

NATIONS PRIDE

Makes his 2024 debut in the Grade II Man o’ War at Aqueduct on Saturday after finishing 2023 with a seventh-place finish in the Bahrain International Trophy, a rare off-the-board result for a horse with a 9-2-1 record from 15 starts and over $2.5 million in career purse earnings. His victories last year included the Canadian International at Woodbine and the Group 1 Bayerisches Zuchtrennen at Munich Racecourse in Germany (I absolutely had to include that). As a 3-year-old In 2022, Nations Pride won the Saratoga Derby Invitational and the Jockey Club Derby Invitational at Belmont Park.

Result: Took the lead at the quarter pole, but surrendered it soon after to stablemate Silver Knott and finished third to him.

WHITEBEAM

Trainer Chad Brown had four horses in the five-horse Grade I Diana at Saratoga last year, and Whitebeam won it with the longest betting odds of all the Brown horses, finishing a nose ahead of stablemate In Italian. Whitebeam is the even-money favorite on the morning line for the Grade III Beaugay at Aqueduct on Saturday while making her 2024 debut.

Result: Whitebeam and Spirit and Glory knocked heads the length of the stretch, only to be caught just before the wire by Neecie Marie in a perfectly timed last-to-first ride by Joel Rosario. Whitebeam was second by a neck.

CONFIDENCE GAME

At 12-1, he’s the longest shot on the morning line in a seven-horse allowance optional claiming race at Churchill Downs Park on Saturday while trying to hit the board for the first time since winning the Rebel at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 25 of last year, which got him into the Kentucky Derby. I wrote about this horse last year because one of his owners in Don’t Tell My Wife Stables is a Glens Falls native and Lake George resident, Rob Slack. His dream was to watch Confidence Game run in the Travers at Saratoga, but trainer Keith Desormeaux gave him some time off after finishing 10th in the Derby. Confidence Game opened 2024 with a fifth-place finish in the Louisiana Stakes in January. Among the horses he’ll face on Saturday is Hit Show, who was fifth in the Derby last year.

Result: Faded to sixth, as Hit Show won as the even-money betting favorite.

Contact Mike MacAdam at mikemac@dailygazette.com. Follow on X @Mike_MacAdam.