[Stardust]

Race of the day: Gotham Stakes
Champion Hansen takes on 12 rivals in the $400,000 Gotham Stakes over Aqueduct’s winterized inner track. The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero is the only graded stakes winner in the field, with only three other stakes winners of any kind.

A victory will get Hansen back among the forefront of Kentucky Derby discussion, with his Holy Bull defeat written off to losing to the talented Algorithms in the champion’s first start after a layoff, having stumbled at the start and gotten overly anxious. A defeat will accelerate talk that Hansen is a one-dimensional horse who took advantage of Juvenile runner-up Union Rags’ wide trip that day at Churchill Downs.

Hansen won’t have a blue tail — as owner-breeder Dr. Kendall Hansen considered until the idea was rejected by the New York stewards — but he does have an equipment change, with the blinkers coming off. And if the competition seems soft on paper, he’ll get brownie points should he win from post 12.

“He’s very athletic, and I think the two turns will help settle him,” said Dr. Harvey Diamond, the head of the Skychai Racing partnership that bought 25 percent of Hansen before the Juvenile. “If he’ll change leads and get onto the backstretch, I think he’ll be a whole lot more comfortable than he was in the (one-turn) Holy Bull. I guess if you’re going to stumble at the gate, I’d rather have him on the outside than the inside.

“Once again, it’s a prep. It’s not our goal. It’s prep to get to our goal.”

Trainer Mike Maker isn’t thrilled about such an outside post with the relatively short run to the turn. “The only benefit I guess for us is, we won’t have to stand in the gate that long,” he said.

Acknowledging that a “very good horse” beat Hansen last time, Maker said he’d be very disappointed if the champion didn’t win this time. “Stranger things have happened,” he said. “But yeah, obviously we’d be disappointed.”

Main competition: Jean Lafitte winner My Adonis closed from out of the clouds to take third in the Holy Bull, a half-length behind Hansen. “He was only beaten a half-length to the juvenile champion in his last race,” said trainer Kelly Breen.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...t|Sports|p