acqudect is a **** of a track

Them's fightin' words, Mickey. That's the Big A you're talkin' about

Look, it's a bit harder to follow the form at this time of year. Most of the talent, both human and equine, has nicked off to the Florida sunshine. The bulk of the races are $12.5k claimers so you've got to expect the fields to be largely comprised of inconsistent scrubbers. The quality of the racing always improves when they get back on to the main track.

You're right about Ramon Dominguez ... champion rider who often stuck around when all the big names were chasing the big bucks elsewhere. But I reckon the two Ortiz boys are pretty damn good and some of the apprentices coming on are showing potential. M.Franco, E.Esquivel and a new one who's just come on the scene from Illinois, T.B.Rice, the niece of trainer, Linda Rice. A good bug rider can clean up during the inner-track season at Aqueduct. Those few less pounds of weight can often make the difference when you're looking at evenly matched lower-class horses.